Agent Chetiri
by cumberwookie
Summary: We all have secrets to keep, some more so than others. What a seemingly innocent woman named Alexandra hides, however, is a tale of espionage, murder, ending with a harrowing escape to London. She keeps her secret hidden away but soon finds that the figures from her past could not only endanger her own life but also threaten a certain Quartermaster's as well. QxOC, slight Bondlock!
1. Prologue

Hey there :) Wow, this is my first fic! And I suppose it's a shot in the dark, since it's Q paired with an OC but I hope you like it anyway. It's pretty fun to write and any comments or suggestions are always welcome.

So, happy reading and drop a review by later!

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_While each child is born with his or her own distinct genetic potential for physical, social, emotional and cognitive development, the possibilities for reaching that potential remain tied to early life experiences and it is difficult to determine if a child from a troubled past can change._

**-Bernice Weissbourd**

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It is the never ending debate of nature versus nurture. Many parents and sociologists alike struggle to find the answer, if our character was caused by nurturing or our human nature. Is a person good or bad because they just are or is it more complex than that? Are we, as human beings, naturally villainous or does the answer lay in how we were raised?

And more importantly, can we change for good?

For one young woman, the answer to this age old question was not as simple as it seemed. She had faced many complications in her life and for a while, it was hard for her to determine whether or not she could change.

Her name was Alexandra Maria Nikolova. She was a bright and rather pleasant young girl, with dark brown hair and grey eyes. Alexa was born on June 18, 1985 in the humble town of Kodino, which was a few hours northeast of glittering lights of St. Petersburg. She had been born to a pair of hard-working upper middle class parents, Dmitri and Natalia. Her mother had stayed home to care for her and her father was a doctor at the local hospital. Their home was located on the outskirts of Kodino, that overlooked a large green pasture. It was a large and lovely home and their only neighbors were a mile away. She had a relatively normal childhood, playing with her mother as they went into the forest, near the house. For a while, Alexa was happy and the problem itself had not stemmed from her home life, but rather at school.

In 1989, education in Russia still followed a system set by the Soviet Union, with preschool education for ages three to five being monitored by local authorities. The system went through radical changes frequently and when Alexa entered preschool at the tender age of three, she was put under examinations for the track system. A track system education was a system based on giving the child a test and further examining their abilities to determine which job would be best for them. Once put on such a track, they would not be allowed to learn any other subjects that would make them stray from their educational path.

With the deteriorating state of the Soviet Union in 1989, however, the government took more of an interest in these young children in the hopes that they could be moulded and fashioned to their will, to breed the ultimate killer who could infiltrate foreign governments, to bring more power to a collapsing government.

In turn, an operation was formed, called "**_Operation Chetiri_**". Chetiri was the word for the number four, which was said to be associated with death. Hence, the operation came to be. It was very hush hush, so to speak, and few knew what was really going on. The government had cleverly disguised it as a test to supplement the track system but in reality, all children who qualified would be sent to a facility in the forest, near the border of Estonia. The nearest town was Plyussa, which was several hours away. Once they were in the program, the children would be trained and essentially fight for the title of "**_Agent Chetiri_**", which was considered to be the highest goal. It was the mark of a true killer, one who could bring down nations if they so chose.

To put the plan in motion, a representative from the government was placed in every town and city to monitor the children, to see which prospects would qualify for this operation and they would send men to perform the necessary actions to ensure the child's position in the program. When Alexa took her exam, she had passed with little effort and upon further examination by the town's government representative, he concluded that she was indeed qualified for the program. Her parents were informed that she could attend an "elite school" and naturally, they were delighted. What they didn't know, however, was that the child had to have nothing left to come back to, in order to assure that all loose ends were tied up. In turn, soldiers were sent to Alexa's home in order to take Alexa and leave her parents to die.

On the night she had been taken, the men had arrived at the house during their supper. Alexa had not understood what they wanted and she hadn't known why she was sent away while her parents talked to them, but she would soon be glad that they had done so. It was only when she had heard a loud, echoing gunshot and her mother's scream that she realized that she had to run away. Though she was only four, she recognized the sound from when her father would take her hunting with him and she knew that the sound meant that something (or rather, someone) was dead.

She had burst out of the house whilst clutching the only remnants of her past that remained, which was a photograph of her with her parents and a key to the house, secured around her necklace. Alexa had run into the safety of the dark forest, shivering and knee deep in the snow. She had done her best not to look back, upon hearing more gunshots follow.

Alexa remembered hearing her mother screaming her name for the last time before one final gunshot was fired, one that echoed through the trees. The young girl had charged blindly into the snowy woods, going further and further until she had tripped on a tree root and fell to the ground with a cry of pain. Alexa had lay there in tears at knowing that her mother and father would never come back, and that she was alone.

The soldiers had found her that night, lying underneath a large, rotting tree root and as much as she flailed and resisted, they did not relent. Their job was to get her, and they would not take no for an answer. She was taken to the facility in down near Plyussa where they began training her and even after the formal dissipation of the Soviet Union in 1991, the program still remained active and functional. They intended to see this program to the bitter end and in one way or another, they would produce one of the world's best killers.

Initially, they had began with thirty terrified children from every part of Russia. Alexa sympathized with them, knowing that they had all gone through the same thing but as the training began, the others soon lost sight of who they used to be. It was a constant fight to be the best, leaving no room for forging friendships.

The facility itself was conducted much like a school. There was a cafeteria, rooms on the second floor, a main courtyard for congregation, and classrooms on the first floor. The courses taught in the classrooms were tough, vigorously drilling her to excel in mathematics, language, geography, self-defense, weapon handling, science, history, and technology.

Alexa was taught to speak in Russian and English and also to write and read in both the Cyrillic and English alphabet. It had taken her a bit longer to learn each language but in about three years, she was fluent in both Russian and English. In the afternoon, she was taught to handle a firearm and shoot various weapons, everything from guns to arrows. Alexa was not used to holding such weapons and was mediocre, to say the least, in both her shooting and weapons handling class. However, the teacher had pushed her to be better, with the threat of being reprimanded looming over her head. Her aim soon improved and she became quicker and stronger, becoming another average face in the class.

Alexa had also never been too keen on remembering historical facts and geographical landmarks but made up for it in science, since the thought of always being constantly inquisitive appealed to her. Nevertheless, her primary interests were actually technology and math. Alexa learned whatever she could from those classes and slightly neglected her other studies because they were irrelevant to her interests.

The children were also placed in a sport and a humanity class to learn as well, in an effort to make things "fun". Alexa was put in gymnastics and ballet, and never chose to learn any art besides those two because she loved both. The only art she had hated to learn was the art of social interaction. They believed that to be a successful killer, you had to be charming and amiable with everyone. A woman would come by every Tuesday and Thursday to teach them about proper conversational skills and etiquette. It was really quite dull but most of the students found the basic skill of proper communication to be simple, except for Alexa. She was naturally quiet, finding idle chatter unnecessary, and it made learning this skill much more difficult than it really should have been.

However, most children where overwhelmed by such a variety of topics and by the time Alexa was eleven, eight had already committed suicide, having cracked under such pressure. Alexa quickly learned that if you didn't comply with their demands, you were as good as dead. She had only disobeyed their demands once and they had inscribed the word "chetiri" on her lower back with a knife. Although the scar had faded to a dull white, it was a marking that she would bear for the rest of her life, reminding her of what she was raised to be: a killer.

Nevertheless, she kept in mind that she was not born a killer and she was born as Alexandra Nikolova. Most of the other children had forgotten about their past already but she desperately clung onto it, seeing that it was the only memory she had of her parents, save for the photograph she had and the key to her home. She promised to never forget who she was, because she knew it was what her parents would have wanted.

Alexa's innate sense of self-preservation saved her through these years and she abided by their rules, playing the game as she was taught. It was a hell that she had to endure for twelve years, a necessary evil. On the outside, she had grown to be one of their best operatives and seemed cold and unfeeling to anything. However, she still remained the same on the inside, cringing every time she made a kill and looking for every chance to escape. It would require a considerable amount of effort to do so, but it wasn't entirely impossible. All she had to do was wait for the opportunity.

Now, in time, the numbers went from thirty all the way down to two. Eight had committed suicide and six had not complied to their demands and were killed. Six had died as a result of being overworked and eight were killed in the result of brawls amongst the children. The remaining survivors were Alexa and a boy named Peter Czerny. Alexa and Peter were soon given assassinations to handle, under the watchful eye of several guards. They were not allowed to go off on their own yet but were paid quite a bit of money, just for doing the dirty work. At the age of seventeen, the leaders of the operation (a group of figures called the Division) decided that it was time to unleash them upon the real world, to take it on alone. It was the final test, to see who was the best.

Alexa was sent to Belarus to kill a high ranking government official, Anton Stoichkov, who knew enough about the Russian defense system to know that they were up to something. He thought that they were constructing a bomb of some sort, which they were. She had seven days to complete the kill, which gave her enough time to construct a new identity and gave her a way out of this lifestyle. It would get rid of the bad side that they had created. This was what she had waited for all these years and she could not afford to mess it up.

It was a long process, but she did everything she could to ensure that all loose ends were tied up. She had prepared legal papers and alibis to ensure that her life would go on without any trouble. Alexa had applied to a university in London, where she would start on her degree in Computer Science. Then, Alexa had knocked out the security cameras and planted the bomb in the study of Anton's home. Alexa had knocked out one of the maids that most resembled her (in terms of body type) and used her outfit to disguise herself. Alexa then went in to give Anton his tea at the study and drugged him so he wouldn't get away. She then left the body of the unconscious maid on the floor and headed to the basement of the house, where she escaped unseen.

The bomb had gone off a minute later and Alexa was relieved to see that her duo's fiery fate was ensured. Her life could finally begin as she wanted it to be, not under the desires of another. She had felt lighter now, like she was truly free. The bad side that Operation Chetiri didn't even feel like it was there anymore. She traveled by car from Belarus, all the way to France. and avoided the company of others until she reached England, where she hoped to live a new life with a clean slate.

But despite her numerous transgressions and offenses, she wondered, had she changed? Did she finally eliminate the bad side of her and changed for good?

Or could she never escape what she was raised to be?

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Alright guys, I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. There wasn't any dialogue here but there will be in the next chapter. Drop me some feedback if you can, because it'll help me see what I can do with the next chapter and I hope you can stick around for that :)


	2. Chapter 1

Hello there! Thank you so very much to the Guest and TimeLady945 for the reviews. I really enjoyed hearing feedback and it was nice to see that someone is actually reading this. Q is actually in this one and this actually has dialogue now, so hooray for that! :)

Anyway, here's the new chapter and I hope you enjoy it as much as the last!

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_Very few of us are what we seem._

_**-Agatha Christie**_

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It has always been said to never judge a person by their cover, for it could lead to misconceptions and possibly awkward situations. But as you walk along the streets, you cannot help but wonder:

What secrets lie beneath the surface, waiting to be revealed?

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After her escape from Operation Chetiri, Alexa had moved to England under the alias of "Alexandra Abbott". She had pooled together the money she had received from her assassinations (which barely covered her tuition and living expenses) and went to study at King's College for computer science. It was a lovely college, and she was prosperous and content. Her social interaction skills were still subpar and to be frank, she had not made a single friend. After six long (and somewhat lonely) years, she had obtained her master's degree in computer science in 2008. Although Alexa did not graduate at the top of her class but she was fairly close, placing second to a man whose name she could not recall.

After her studies had finally conceded, she used her degree to land a job in network security at a company called Enigma Technologies, a technology company based in London. She worked in the network security branch on developing new ways to improve the company's security software, which protected banks and businesses around the city. Alexa worked as a regular employee for two years before deciding to reach a higher position where she would have better pay and more access to the technology at the office.

Now, Alexa believed that the best way to protect yourself from hackers was to become one, so she used her spare time learning the art of hacking. It had taken two more years before she implemented this newfound knowledge in their security system, which helped her to rise above the ranks to become the of head of network security in her department.

It was only fair to say that life for her was quite good, but she could not help but become bored by her job at Enigma Tech. Her co-workers were rather dull, only speaking to her on businesslike terms and to be completely honest, she wanted to do more than protect the businesses and banks of London. She wanted to go further somehow, but she did not where to go from here. Her answer would later come from a rather unexpected place, more specifically, at the Barbican Tube station.

Alexa walked out of the Enigma Technology building at around 8:13 PM on September 10, 2012, wrapping her jacket around her. It was a rather exhausting day and she found herself feeling drained. She had worn a black blazer today, paired with a white sweater that had small, blue stripes. Unlike any businesswoman, she had actually worn flats, like a sensible person and a pair of comfortable black slacks.

She jogged down the steps and scanned her pass before taking a seat at a bench. The platform was not very full at the moment, save for the occasional passerby coming into the station. She pulled out a book on quantum cryptography from her purse and began to read until her train arrived.

Alexa had gone about ten pages into the book before she heard soft footsteps from the staircase beside her. She did not look up and flipped to the next page of her book. Moments later, she heard the footsteps coming her way before the person sat down next to her on the bench.

"Hmm, _Quantum Cryptography and Secret-Key Distillation by Gilles Van Asche_. That's certainly an unusual choice," they said.

Alexa looked up suddenly to meet the eyes of a man who looked to be about her age, with tousled brown hair and green eyes. He wore glasses and she found him rather cute, if not, handsome. She dropped her gaze immediately, almost afraid to look at him for any longer and stared at her book. He seemed familiar somehow and she really couldn't place why this was so. Her brain scrambled to form a complete and appropriate sentence in response and after a moment, she finally spoke.

"I...find it relevant to my interests," Alexa said, shrugging slightly. He seemed to be studying her carefully, in order to make various deductions about her that could tell him if she was dangerous or not. She was rather thin, with slender bones that made her look girlish and fine-limbed with small hands and narrow wrists. She had a small, upturned nose and high cheekbones that contrasted with her striking grey eyes.

She was more on the shorter side of the height spectrum, about 5' 4" (162 cm) without any heels and she was dressed nicely, but not so much as to classify her as a businesswoman. He determined her to be an average civilian, with a higher class job in technology, it seemed. There was a faint accent in her voice that he could not quite place and her pleasant features seemed to hide her wary eyes. She was suspicious of him as well, so he would have to proceed with caution.

"Someone with an interest in quantum cryptography wasn't the kind of thing I expected to find in a Tube station," he replied as he leaned back into the bench. Although she was aware of the potentially dangerous situations that could occur with associating with a stranger, she did not edge away because she knew that she could take him down if she chose to. However, there was something about him that was different and she was cautious of him, despite his unassuming features.

"What were you expecting to find?" she said, her words coming out a bit too sharp for her liking. Alexa inwardly cringed and fell silent, hoping that she didn't offend him with her tone of voice.

"I don't know. Certainly not you. What is it about this that interests you, Miss...?" he said, his voice trailing off.

Alexa met his questioning stare and set her book down on her lap. "I'm Alexa," she said. "And you are?"

The man seemed to pause for a moment before holding out a hand. "Call me Q," he replied, smiling slightly. Her brow furrowed and she stared at him disbelievingly.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that your name is a letter?" she said skeptically.

"No, of course not," he replied. "But I merely prefer going by this name."

"Ah, I see," she said softly, nodding in comprehension. "What was your earlier question?"

"I was wondering why such a subject was relevant to your interests," he replied. There was something in her that had struck him as intriguing and he wanted to know why she knew more about technology than the average person. She did not hesitate to answer him this time, because she saw genuine interest to the topic.

"Well, I'm looking at designing a security system based with values from both the AES 256 and quantum cryptography. I haven't found anything yet but I'm doing a bit more reading to see what I can come up with," she replied.

"That's certainly unusual. I'm sure that only a quantum-based attack or an algorithm compromise could break encryption at that level, but quantum cryptography isn't entirely infallible," Q said. "The qubit created from horizontal polarization can still be intercepted by an outside force whilst going through the horizontal/vertical beam splitter. A man in the middle attack, so to speak."

Her eyes lit up and she nodded, glad to see that he actually understood what she was attempting to do. "That's the problem I've been running into and I've got an idea for a solution, but it's still vague," she said.

"Do you mind telling me what this is all for?" he said curiously. "It's not every day I meet someone who's intent on making an entirely secure system.

"It's just fascinating to me," she replied vaguely.

"I see," he replied. Q stopped briefly and glanced at the train that was arriving. They both stood up to get on and instead of sitting away from him, Alexa found herself next to the mysterious Q once more. He did not seem to mind, so she decided to ask the one question that had been on her mind this entire time. Unfortunately, it had been at the same exact time he decided to ask her as well so it came to be that they both spoke.

"Have I-" he began.

"Look, have we-" she started to say. Alexa immediately stopped and clamped a hand over her mouth in surprise. "Sorry, you go first," she said, her cheeks turning a distinct shade of pink in embarrassment. How she hated social interactions! She was utter rubbish at them!

Q chuckled lightly, at seeing how shy she really was, and glanced at the sign on the wall before returning his gaze to her. "No, it's fine. What were you going to say?" he asked.

"This is going to sound completely ridiculous, but you seem familiar. I'm not quite sure why," Alexa finally confessed. His eyebrows raised slightly and he nodded slowly.

"Strange. I was about to say the same for you," Q replied. She looked surprised and toyed absentmindedly with the edge of her book. "Have you worked with the government at all?" he asked, upon thinking that she had maybe interned for them at some point.

"No, I haven't," she replied, shaking her head. This seemed to puzzle him further and he tapped his fingers against his knee, thinking of any way that he could have seen her. She could not place where on earth she had seen him and within minutes, they had arrived at Euston Square station.

"Well, this is me. It was nice to meet you, Q," she said. She stood up and grabbed the handrail on the side of the train to steady herself.

"It was lovely to meet you as well," he said. "Have a good evening."

Alexa said goodbye and soon stepped into Euston Square station. She slung her purse over one shoulder and walked to the stairs, letting out a sigh as she went up. Alexa had never talked to a stranger like that, much less about quantum cryptography.

She headed home and found herself thinking about Q more than she really should have been, mostly about his intelligence. Although she had only seen a brief glimpse of it, she knew that he was probably incredibly smart and she found some small part in herself that hoped that he would be there again tomorrow.

About a week passed until their paths crossed once more. Alexa was still working on the same problem of her security system but Q actually faced one of his own. Although it had been several months since the Raoul Silva incident, a few of his men had remained. They had found two of his men in the Q-Branch and the numbers of his employees had gone from eight to a mere six, counting himself. He needed to fill those spots somehow and he had no idea where to start his recruitment process, so to speak. M had suggested that he start looking at people in London, but he really had no time to do so.

The only person whom he could possibly think of was Alexa, but he didn't know too much about her yet. Sure, he had been keeping a keen eye on her for the past few days but he was otherwise still in the dark about who she really was. However, he was intent on seeing her to figure out more about her, to see if she would be a probable candidate for a position in the Q-Branch.

That evening, Alexa had headed out of the building a bit later than she usually did because she had been working on designing her secure system. She headed down the stone steps as usual and scanned her pass, sitting on another bench as she waited for her train. Alexa took out the book she had been looking at for the past few days, a novel about the Advanced Encryption Standard and began to read.

The world and all its noise did not reach her as she became engrossed in her book, her mind working to find the solution to the security flaws in quantum cryptography. It would be ten minutes before she returned back to reality, when a voice seemed to break her trance.

"I see you've got something new this time," he said. She looked up, a startled expression covering her features. Alexa had been so deep in thought that she hadn't really expected anyone to bother her. When she realized that it was just Q, she set her book on her lap and looked back up at him.

"It's a different book, but it's the same problem," she said.

"I take it that you haven't resolved your dilemma?" he said as he sat down next to her.

"I've made the basic framework, but other than that, I haven't really gotten anywhere. It's frustrating," she said, looking irritated.

"You won't give up, though. Am I correct in that assumption?" he replied.

"Precisely," Alexa said. She glanced at him briefly, attempting to find some deduction that she could retaliate with but she found none of specific use. Alexa sighed and returned her gaze to the passing people on the platform.

"Why do I keep running into you?" she finally said. "Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Not at all. But we really can't just keep running into each other like this. Why don't we go have a coffee?" he suggested, after carefully considering his words. He had never really attempted to get close to anyone like this before but it was what his job required him to do so. Q saw her hesitate momentarily but she merely shrugged and stood up.

"Right now? That certainly doesn't sound like a bad idea," Alexa said. She put her book back in her purse and the two headed back up the steps, walking silently next to each other. Alexa and Q went to a coffee shop down the street called Betsy's and took a seat at a booth next to the window.

"What can I get you two?" the waitress said as she handed them a small menu.

"I'll take a decaf, with two sugars and milk," Alexa replied as she glanced at the paper in her hands.

"I'll have a cup of Earl Grey," Q replied. The woman rushed off to put their orders in and Alexa turned back to face him, wringing her hands nervously in her lap.

"May I ask you something?" she said hesitantly.

"Ask away," he replied with a shrug.

"Who exactly are you?" she blurted out. Upon noticing that her sentence wasn't exactly what she wanted to say, she hastily rephrased it. "I mean, you know exactly what I'm talking about when I mentioned quantum cryptography and the Advanced Encryption Standard. Not just anyone can do that, so why can you?"

"I'm not a malignant figure. Far from it, actually. I'm just...interested in those sorts of matters, like you are," Q said.

"Why?" Alexa said, her grey eyes peering curiously into his. Q knew that he could not answer her directly and instead, attempted to answer her question with one of his own.

"Why not? Security is an ever evolving thing with today's technology and I...like to keep up, to make sure I'm not in any real danger. What about you?" he said evasively.

"It's my job. I have to be interested or else I'll go broke," Alexa said lightheartedly. The waitress came by, momentarily putting a stop to their conversation and she set down two steaming mugs of tea and coffee.

"And your job is?" Q said as he took a sip of his tea.

"Well, I should introduce myself properly. We did meet at the Tube station, so I only think it would be fair. But if I tell you who I am, you have to tell me who you are," she replied.

"I can't promise that," he said, giving her an enigmatic smirk.

"Then I won't say anything," Alexa said stubbornly. They stared at each other for several moments before Q cracked under her gaze, finding her much more tenacious than she looked.

"Fine. I'll say something eventually," he muttered.

"Good. I'm Alexandra Abbott. I work as a head of network security at Enigma Technologies," she said. Something seemed to click in his mind and he finally figured out what her name meant to him.

"So that's why you looked so familiar," he muttered.

"Why? What is it?" she said, looking startled.

"I've heard your name before. You graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2008," he replied.

"I do recall that I've seen you somewhere, so I suppose that was it," Alexa said.

"Well, I'm glad you don't remember my name then. It's utterly horrible anyway," he replied, chuckling lightly. Q took another drink of his tea and set it down in front of him again. "So, Enigma Technologies. I've heard that name several times in the news. What is it that your company does again?"

"We protect the banks and businesses of London," Alexa said, attempting to sound enthusiastic. He acknowledged her pseudo-enthusiastic demeanor with a grin of his own.

"You hate your job, don't you?" Q said, looking amused.

"Oh god, yes," Alexa said instantaneously. She saw the error in her words, seeing that it was bad to criticize her own occupation.

"Well, I mean, I don't exactly hate it. It's nice but it's just a bit...dull, I suppose," she confessed. "I'm sorry, this is just coming out all wrong."

"No, it's fine," Q said, chuckling softly. "What exactly is it that bores you?"

"Well, don't get me wrong. I like working on our security system but to put it simply, I'm bored. I'm only twenty-seven and being bored now is a bad thing. I have a lot of my life left to live and I just...don't want to confine myself to protecting banks and businesses for the rest of my life. I want to reach a bit higher and find something worthwhile to protect but I have no idea what that would be. Therefore, I am stuck at my current job at Enigma," Alexa confessed. Q remembered his current dilemma and took the last sip of his tea.

"I might be able to help with that, actually," he replied.

"How so?" she said, looking puzzled.

"I'd like you to answer this for me first. Would you ever consider leaving your job now, considering your current success?" Q said.

"Well...I suppose so, if the new job is something worthwhile. But I have nothing better to go to," Alexa said with a shrug.

"Would you consider yourself good at what you do?" he said as he pulled out £5 from his wallet.

"I...think so, but that's really not for me to judge," she said as she looked down at her coffee cup. Q stood up without warning and set the money on the table, which caused her to look up.

"Wait, where are you going?" Alexa said, looking startled.

"We'll see how good you are soon enough. I hope to see you again in a few days, Alexa," he said as he put his coat on. He exited the cafe, leaving her in stunned silence. It took her a minute to recover from his sudden departure, but she merely sighed and headed home as well. She did not understand what he had meant by his words but she figured that it wouldn't be too terrible. He did say that he didn't have malignant intentions.

However, she truly had no idea of the events to come and how they would shape her life for the year ahead. He had the upper hand now and all she could do was to watch and wait for Q's next move.

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Alright, that seems to be it. But, I do have a rather important issue to address so **please don't scroll past this!**

**_I was wondering if you guys would prefer this story to stay in the James Bond fandom or let it cross-over with the Sherlock fandom._**

Both would blend together marvelously (honestly, it would) and although the Sherlock fandom won't have too many major elements to the story, its presence will still be there. For example, Q's name would be Sherrinford Holmes, because that's the name of the supposed third Holmes brother. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was supposed to stick him in the actual stories somewhere but I don't know what the hell happened to that. You can give your input by giving a review!

Anyway, I would like to hear back from everyone and I hope you can leave a review to let me know what else I can do with this fic. I hope you're all enjoying it so far!


	3. Chapter 2

Oh my! Thanks for all the lovely reviews, everyone. I loved each of them and the input you gave me. This will now have Bondlock and the Holmes brothers will probably make their appearance in later chapters :)

Anyway, I'd like to give a special shoutout to **_Xanid_** for a ton of excellent advice. I will try to keep your words in mind as I write and I really am grateful to get that sort of response from a reader. Thank you!

Alright guys, enjoy your read!

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_The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination._

_-**Albert Einstein**_

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After his meeting with Alexa, Q had headed back home and immediately got to work on making sure that she would have the abilities and qualifications to work in the Q-Branch. If everything in her legal papers checked out, he would then devise a plan that would both allow him to see how she really worked whilst giving her the opportunity to figure out that she did have some higher purpose than protecting the banks and businesses of London.

The next day, he decided to head to work a little earlier than usual. He usually came in first to the office anyway, but today he was early by about twenty minutes. Q logged onto his laptop and typed in her name on the national database servers. In about thirty minutes, he had been able to access her files and he printed a hard copy for M to look at later.

Upon his first glance, her papers looked more or less like everyone else's. Q found that she was born as Alexandra Georgia Abbott and brought up in an orphanage in Dover. Her teen years were generally uneventful; she was a rather quiet, reclusive child, who preferred to blend in with the crowd. In university, she had allowed her professors to catch a glimpse of her creative mind, where she had created new algorithms to benefit the advancement of her technological endeavors. After excelling in college, she then completed her schooling with a master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, ranking only second to him upon graduating. The rest he was aware of, that she had gone to work at Enigma Tech. What he did not know, however, was that some of this was fictitious. But the less he knew about her real identity, the better things would be.

Q then spent the remainder of that day, making sure that her background was correct. He called the city hall in Dover to get in contact with the owner of the orphanage Alexa had lived at to ensure that this was all correct. However, he soon found that the orphanage she had been raised at had gone out of business and the former owner had died of liver cancer in 2007. This did not deter or dishearten him, since it wasn't really her past that he was looking at. All he had to do was make sure that she was not affiliated with any unsavory characters ad that she would be capable of doing her job. He then proceeded to delve deeper in his search, contacting her former professors and receiving their opinions about her. Although their words varied, they all generally said that she was "quietly brilliant", and that she would do well in a challenging and inventive environment. By the end of the day, he had concluded that Alexandra Abbott was qualified to work at the Q-Branch.

The next day, Q had decided that it was time to see M, so that his plan to recruit Alexa would be approved. He picked up the folder with Alexa's files and walked briskly down the stone hallway, towards M's office. Q knocked lightly on the door before walking in to meet the eyes of his boss, Gareth Mallory, who was now the new M.

"Ah, Q. You're earlier than usual today, which is saying something. What brings you here?" he said as he stood up.

"I've come on the premise of hiring a new employee," Q said as he approached M's desk.

"A new employee? How on earth did you find one so quickly?" M said as he sat back down.

"I have my ways," Q said vaguely, unwilling to tell M that he had literally just bumped into her on the street by chance.

"I see. Who is this person and what is it about them that requires my attention? As far as I'm concerned, the Q-Branch and all of its affairs are under your jurisdiction," he said.

"Her name is Alexandra Abbott. She and I graduated together from the same university and she came in second, with me at the top spot," he explained.

"An old friend of yours, then?" M said.

"You know me, M. I don't have friends," Q scoffed. "However, she is the head of network security for Enigma Technologies in London and I would like to test her abilities before I hire her."

"What does this little test entail, Q? Nothing too troublesome, I hope," he replied.

"The test I want to conduct is different from the usual and require a bit of imaginative thinking to crack. I would like to send a virus to attack the security system of Enigma Technologies. It will show me if I want to have her around. However, this would also require hacking into their security system and I'm not exactly sure if I can do that," Q said.

"Ah, I see. You need my permission to do something slightly illegal," M said with a nod. "Well, you have to make sure that they won't be able to trace it back to us. And I'm sure you'll be able to do that, won't you?"

"I would be ashamed if I didn't," he replied.

"You have my permission to attack their network, then," M said as he leaned back in his seat.

"Thank you, sir. She should be in the Q-Branch in the next few days," Q said.

"Excellent. That takes care of that issue," M said. Q excused himself and quickly left the office to begin work on executing his plan. He wanted to make the virus, take down their firewall, unleash his creation, and see what would happen next.

He went back to his laptop and began by designing the replication mechanism for a type-executable virus under DOS. The file format's code always started at the address 0x100, so he would design the virus to attach itself to the end of the Task Manager executable file and replace the instruction at 0x100, rerouting it back to its initial address. In turn, the viral code would always execute whenever the file was clicked. He anticipated that in the event of a network attack in which he would hijack their entire system, everyone would usually begin by opening Task Manager, so this virus-based attack would prove effective in this case. It was an attack that would require her to stretch her imagination a little and he was looking to see if she could figure out the solution.

Now, the second component of his virus was the payload mechanism. He would only give her about ten minutes to attempt to fix the virus attack and to get the firewall up and running again before locking the network and making random changes to several machines on the network. He had not planned to do anything else that was considered malicious but he knew that he could, if he really wanted to. Besides, this was only a test so he didn't need to ruin their system any more than he was required to.

Q worked on designing the virus for the rest of the morning and by one o'clock, he was ready to go. He was finally forced to look away from his laptop screen when he heard someone walk in.

"Hello, Q. Got any interesting inventions for me to test today?" James said as he walked into the Q-Branch.

"007, you've wrecked every single device we've designed and we've run out of ideas. You still need to pay me for those, by the way," Q muttered.

"I'll get to it eventually," he replied casually. James walked up behind him and glanced over his shoulder at the long lines of code that covered the screen. "What the hell is that?"

"It's a test for someone I'm recruiting," he said.

"Who is it this time? You'd better make a good choice. Last time, you let in Silva's me-" James began.

"The folder is over there. Either shut up and watch or leave. I am busy," Q said, looking mildly irritated. His fingers ghosted over the keys and he typed quickly, his mind coming up with different values to input.

"Fine, no need to be mean," James said as he reviewed the folder. He stared at the photo of Alexa and raised an eyebrow. "Where did you find this one? She looks much too pretty to be stuck working here."

"Appearances are completely irrelevant to the job," Q said absentmindedly.

"You might want to watch out, Q. I wouldn't hire a distraction, if I were you," he said.

"Oh, please. I'm practically married to this job and I highly doubt that she would purposely distract me from my work," Q scoffed.

"Well, you never know. The last distraction you hired was Kate, and we all knew how that turned out," James said, knowing that it would be interesting to make a jab at a touchy subject.

"Shut up, Bond," Q said instantaneously.

"Fine. But if I were you, I certainly wouldn't mind having her as my distraction," James said teasingly. "How good is she?"

"She graduated second to me in university but I'll test her true abilities now. Are you going to watch or not?" he said whilst looking at him.

"I don't have anywhere else to be. Why not?" James shrugged. Q returned his gaze to his computer and began making headway into hacking Enigma Technology's firewall. It took him about five minutes to decrypt the code that made up their infrastructure and within ten minutes, he had disabled the firewall for every computer attached to the network and had near control of the system. Q merely smirked and pulled up footage from a CCTV camera feed that he had picked up, to see what would happen in the office.

"Now, we watch and we wait," he said as he folded his arms across his chest and watched as the chaos unfolded in the building.

**_(Meanwhile, with Alexa...)_**

Alexa stood quietly at the table in the center of the network security lab, where she held fibre optic cables to deliver to the communications team later that afternoon. She took a drink of her coffee quietly and scrolled down on her phone screen, to see the other duties that she would have to fulfill, but she heard a sudden shout from one of her co-workers.

"Miss Abbott, the firewalls are down!" a man shouted.

Her head snapped up and she set down the cables on the table. "What? You can't be serious," she said.

"They're down on every machine. We're getting a black screen and then the firewall disabled notice," another woman called.

"Shit," Alexa groaned. This was the last thing she needed today and she really was not anticipating a network attack. Alexa set down her coffee and ran to the nearest phone.

"Keep it at bay for now. Figure out the source, if possible. I need to call a code red network attack," she said to her employees. "Time is of the essence, so get going!"

Alexa informed the different departments of the network attack and told them not to touch their computers and to let her department handle it. She slammed down the receiver and ran to her laptop on the desk. Alexa saw the screen turn black before it returned to the regular desktop layout.

She looked at an overview of the network processes, her brain scrambling to find a solution. Alexa first checked the antivirus software to see if she could fix any sort of broken code that caused the system failure, but there was none. She examined a variety of programs before turning to the Task Manager program.

Alexa immediately noticed that it had already been infected by something since it would not allow her to access it, even under her administrator status. Her brow furrowed and she figured it was either malicious code or a viral based attack. If it was a virus attack, then she would need to keep it from replicating to the other systems.

"Has anyone turned on Task Manager on their machine?" she said. There were several people who raised their hands and she swore under her breath.

"Exit the Task Manager program immediately. I'm presuming this is a viral attack, so it can replicate and become contagious," she said. There was a general murmur of agreement and she turned back to her computer.

Alexa uninstalled Task Manager and rebooted it, and then checked the desktop processes. She scrolled past hundreds of commands before finding the one she was searching for, taskmgrexe. Alexa then clicked on properties and began dismantling the virus from the inside, cautiously advancing into a world of code, numbers, and letters.

Alexa did not dive headfirst into her work and instead, inspected the virus from a rather sideways angle, starting from the outer layers going in. After determining what kind of virus she was dealing with, she hurried to eliminate the 0x100 instruction to keep it from controlling them any longer. Alexa pressed delete on her computer keyboard and the screens around the room flashed once before returning to their normal layout. She smirked slightly, knowing that she was on the correct track now.

"Now for the firewall," she muttered. Alexa's fingers moved swiftly over the keyboard as she repaired lines of code in the infrastructure of the firewall that she had deemed to be malicious. She repeated this process and pressed delete on her keyboard one last time, before all screens flashed black. Her brow furrowed and she waited for the machine to respond. After a few seconds, a message flashed on the screen that was somewhat alarming to her. It said:

**_Congratulations. You passed. But this wasn't anything too difficult, like quantum cryptography._**

"Is everyone seeing this?" Alexa called. There was a murmur of agreement and she felt her cheeks heating up in both anger and embarrassment. Given the nature of the message, she had known exactly who had done this.

"That little bastard. I'm going to kill him, I swear," she muttered as she pounded away at her keyboard. Alexa was able to get the firewall back up and she erased the message, along with any other viruses that might have infiltrated the system. She checked the time on her clock and let out a sigh. Time had passed since the start of the attack and it had taken her about seven minutes to finish protecting the system. It wasn't her best time, since they rarely received widespread network attacks so she consoled herself by saying that she did alright.

After thirty minutes, her boss finally called her up to his office to chat with her. Alexa merely sighed and went up the elevator, expecting a full meltdown from her boss. Paul Harris was a very temperamental man and she expected to get yelled at, which was really the last thing she needed now. Alexa stepped inside of the office, not knowing what exactly to do and she ended up just smiling at him. "Erm...hello," she said as she came in.

"What the hell was that all about?" he demanded.

"We had a network attack and I did my job," Alexa replied smoothly.

"We protect the information banks and businesses, Alexandra. We can't have breaches like that! The system you designed is obviously not able to handle as much as you said it wou-"

"It isn't the system, sir," she said sharply. "I had anticipated for all the foreseeable angles but this was an intelligent attack, from someone who clearly knew how to disable the firewall for several minutes and unleash a virus. They are not the average hacker and they had a purpose, given the message that flashed on all of the screens."

"This attack, the virus, the message...what the bloody hell is this all about, Alexandra?" Paul shouted. "How incompetent are you exactly, to be able to let something so dangerous threaten our system-"

This comment was the final straw for Alexa. She was already pissed off, so she could not hold in her anger any further. She marched up to Paul and jabbed her finger roughly at his chest. "Listen here, you!" she shouted, with equal ferocity. "This was not something I could just foresee and protect us from. I fixed the problem in seven minutes and as far as I'm concerned, I did a damn good job of doing so. If that deems me as incompetent in your eyes, then I would love to see you try and defend an entire network yourself!"

Alexa didn't care for whatever he had to say next and stormed out of the office. She didn't want to be here and she wanted nothing more than to confront Q. Alexa spent the rest of the day in angry silence and by the time they had ensured that everything was secure, it was time for everyone to go home.

Alexa hurried out of the office earlier today and she walked briskly to the Tube station. She was angry at Q for what he did and she reminded herself that nothing good came out of associating with strange men, even if they were attractive. She headed down the stone steps of the Barbican Tube Station and jabbed her pass at the scanner, before going into the platform.

Alexa soon spotted Q sitting at their usual meeting place and it looked like he had been waiting for her. Q gave her an unassuming grin, like nothing had happened and she glared venomously at him before taking a seat. "What the hell was that for?" she snapped.

"I said I would see you in a few days. I wasn't entirely wrong," he said with a smirk.

"Look, Q, who are you? Or rather, who are you with? Don't tell me that the Division sent you," she said exasperatedly. There was a look of confusion, plain and simple, on his face and he shook his head.

"I have no idea who that is," he replied. Alexa's eyes narrowed and she studied his face carefully, to make sure that he wasn't just lying to her.

"Are you completely sure?" she said warily.

"I don't know who that is and I am not affiliated with them in any way," Q said. Despite her anger, a small but nonetheless enigmatic smile appeared on Alexa's face.

"Good answer. Now, who are you really with?" Alexa asked.

"What makes you think that I am affiliated with anyone?" he said curiously.

"Well, a normal person certainly doesn't just go around, breaking into security systems to scare unassuming network security administrators with virus attacks. You had some purpose so tell me, why did you do that?" she said through gritted teeth. He stood up and led her onto the incoming train, while formulating an answer that he hoped to satisfy her pressing question.

"I considered that to be your entrance test into the MI6," Q replied as he handed her the folder in his hands. "I am offering you a position in our technology department, which we call the Q-Branch. If you were to accept the job offer, then I would be your boss."

"You want me to work...for the MI6? But why?" she blurted out, feeling thoroughly surprised. Alexa had not expected that to be the reason for the attack and she was wary of associating herself with the government, given what she had gone through in Russia.

"It was initially your interest in quantum cryptography that caught my eye. I did a bit of research and found out about how creative and inventive you were. That's certainly something you'll need if you do end up working in the Q-Branch," he said.

"What exactly will I be dealing with?" she murmured as she inspected each file cautiously.

"You will be dealing with hacking, cyber-security, developing weapons, and all sorts of other things. Every day is different and I think it is safe to say that there is never a boring day at the MI6," he said. She had calmed down now and she nodded absently, weighing in the pros and cons of accepting this position. It was really nice and she would love to work with them. However, she was still wary since it might allow the Division to identify her and eliminate her. Alexa ended up deciding now that she really didn't care and that if she did get into trouble, that the MI6 could protect her.

"And if I were to refuse, what would you do?" Alexa challenged, curious to see what kind of reaction he would make.

"Would you really prefer working at Enigma over the MI6?" he said, looking amused.

"Fair point. When do you want these papers back?" she asked.

"I'll send someone by your home to pick you up tomorrow afternoon at three, to complete your final examinations. You may give it to me then," he replied.

"Wait, final examinations?" she echoed blankly.

"There is a psychological test and a physical test. I would be advise you to bring a spare pair of clothing for your physical exam, by the way," he said.

"What if I fail both of them?" she said curiously.

"To put it bluntly, it's very hard to fail. The psychology test is a mere psychoanalysis. I passed the physical exam and I'm not too keen on athletic activities," he said with a shrug.

"I see. This is all highly unconventional," Alexa said, with a shake of her head.

"Doing it any other way would be boring," he pointed out.

"Well, that's one way to look at it," Alexa said. Alexa sat quietly, still unable to believe all of what happened today. She was going to work at the MI6. That was if she passed her final examinations, of course. Alexa figured that she wouldn't have any trouble with both the physical and psychological testing and was excited to get to work as soon as possible. She felt the train come to a stop (hers, in fact) and she stood up.

"Goodbye, Q. I'll see you tomorrow, then?" she said.

"That would be lovely," he said. On her way out, she paused and turned to face him.

"Oh, and thank you for all of this, by the way. I don't even care if you caused a commotion in my office today. I'm glad you did it, so thank you," she said as she gave him one of her rare smiles. It was not a large and fake sort of grin, but it was small in size and utterly genuine. It showed a different side of her that was sweet and almost innocent, a side that her previous life had been unable to touch.

"Not a problem. Goodbye, Alexa," he murmured quietly as he watched her go. Her smile had caught him slightly off guard, since she did not look like the type to smile a lot. It gave her a warmer, more lively look and he thought it was lovely on her.

Q shook these thoughts away, mentally scolding himself for such foolish notions and tried to expel any more thoughts about her. He had been alone for the vast majority of his adult life, save for an ex-girlfriend, and he did not want to get close to anyone again, for fear of eventually being pushed away like before. It was in this moment that he promised himself to never fall in love with her, and that their relationship would be nothing but purely professional.

And he was determined to keep it that way.

* * *

That seems to be it! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I would really love to know if you liked it.

Anyway, I have no idea when I can get the next one up but I should have it in a few days or so. Maybe if you leave me some feedback, it'll help me write quicker!


	4. Chapter 3

Welcome back to **_Agent Chetiri_**! Sorry for the wait. I finally got a chance to write since it is Labour Day weekend and I am pretty much free. Thanks for the great review, **_TimeLady945_** and I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter!

* * *

_There are many different sides to people that will never fail to surprise you._

-**_Randy Pausch_**

* * *

The next morning, Alexa had woken up early to sign the papers Q had given her. She then went back to the office and informed Paul of her resignation. It was sudden to him and she led him to believe that it had been because of what he said yesterday after the security breach. Nevertheless, he let her go and by noon, all of her belongings were moved out of the office. She exited Enigma Tech at around one, with her final paycheck and belongings tucked safely under one arm.

She spent the next hour in vain preparation for the so-called examinations. Alexa had decided on a more casual outfit that consisted of a peach-coloured shirt with sleeves that reached her elbows and a black pencil skirt that hugged her curves. She slipped on a pair of black heels and packed a pair of spare clothes and shoes in her purse. Her hair was not a cause of much fuss and she brushed her long, brown hair behind her shoulders.

She heard a knock on the door and opened it to find a petite Asian woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties. The woman had kind eyes and a warm smile to match. She wore a pair of black pants and a white dress shirt and held a phone in one hand, looking like the average government worker. "Good afternoon. I've been sent by Q to pick you up," she said pleasantly.

"Thank you," Alexa said as she picked up her coat and her bag. "My name is Alexandra. You are...?"

"My name is Joy. I work at the Q-Branch. It's lovely to meet you," she said as she led Alexa out to the car idling on the curb.

"Thank you. It's nice to meet you too," she said softly as she climbed in. Alexa had never been too adept with introductions and she had a feeling that she would be facing a lot of them today. She held the paperwork in her hands and tapped her fingers against the smooth surface of the folder, waiting patiently to be brought to the MI6 base.

"Everyone saw what you did with that network attack," Joy said as she drove through the busy streets.

"Oh...really?" Alexa said.

"Yes. I think you did quite well, considering that you got the job done in seven minutes," she said as she glance back in the rearview mirror to smile at Alexa.

"That's nice of you to say so. Thanks," Alexa said as she looked away from Joy. She quietly watched the lights of London fly by and she saw them heading into a tunnel at Sheffield Market, near to where she worked before.

They exited the car and immediately went though a variety of security checkpoints. Alexa followed Joy through the tunnels, which (strangely enough) did not smell like dust and damp bricks. The only scents she could place were the faint aromas people's perfumes and colognes as they walked by. Joy took her into an elevator and proceeded to give her a quick tour of the large underground complex. She led her through various rooms before finally showing her to an area where Alexa saw six desks laid out systematically.

There were three on each side of the room and Q stood at his desk at the center of the room, working on what looked to be an algorithm of some sort. There was another man that stood next to him and they seemed to be arguing fiercely about something.

"Bond, I am not going to proctor the exam myself. I want you to do it," Q said.

"But why? I have things to do-" he protested.

"Au contraire. M said you were free today," Q pointed out. "Besides, you can do this to start paying off that debt you owe for all of the weapons you've destroyed."

The other man looked like he was going to protest, but Joy had decided to intervene. "Here she is, Q," Joy said as she walked in with Alexa in tow. "Good luck on your exams, by the way," she said, smiling at Alexa as she walked by to return to her desk.

"Thank you. I'll try my best," Alexa replied lightheartedly, feeling a surge of confidence from Joy's words. The two men glanced over at her and she recognized Q, but not the man next to him that was leaning against the desk.

"Thank you, Joy. Good afternoon, Alexa," Q said politely. Alexa's eyes wandered momentarily to inspect her surroundings before her gaze returned to Q.

"Hello, Q. Here are my papers," she said as she handed him the folder.

"Excellent. This man is James Bond, better known as Agent 007. He will be the proctor for your physical examination," he said. James gave him a dirty look and Q silenced him with a glare of equal ferocity. He let out a sigh and approached Alexa, seemingly conceding defeat.

"Er, hi. It's nice to meet you. I'm Alexandra Abbott," she began, cringing at her initial awkwardness with a man. It was always like this and she hoped that it would pass soon. Alexa held out her hand and stopped suddenly when she realized that her words were a bit incorrect. "I just go by Alexa," she hastily added.

He was about six feet tall with a slim but muscled build. He had clean-cut sandy blonde hair and cold blue-grey eyes that peered at her with both curiosity and suspicion. His lips were upturned in a smirk but he still managed to keep a rather stoic expression permanently glued to his face.

"The pleasure is mine. Feel free to call me Bond, by the way," he said as he stood up. "Q, I'll take her to the training rooms on the second level."

"Go ahead. I'll be there with M in a few minutes," he said as he turned back to finish his work. James led Alexa out of the room and the two went on their way to the training rooms.

"So, how did Q find you?" he finally said as they roamed the stone halls. "You certainly can't be a friend of his."

"Why would you assume that I'm not his friend?" Alexa said curiously.

"Have you seen him? He doesn't exactly look like the type to have any friends," James scoffed. "Besides, you're much too pretty to be his friend. He would hardly have the heart to talk to you, much less become friends with you."

"Well, he and I apparently went to the same university but I didn't really know him. I just met recently at a Tube stop on my way home, when he saw me reading a book about quantum cryptography," she said with a shrug, feeling pleased to see that she could actually form coherent sentences now.

"I would imagine that it was even more surprising when he hacked into your security system. What was that like?" he chuckled.

"It was...unexpected, to say the least. I was angry at first but he offered me this job in return for my efforts," she replied.

"Well, I think you'll enjoy it here. We don't exactly deal with average business and every day is never boring," James said as he opened the door for her. They stepped into a large room with brick walls and various equipment laying about.

"The showers are over there. You can change and come back when you're ready," he said. Alexa nodded and went off to change into different clothes, which consisted of a sporty, black tank-top and a pair of workout tights. She slipped on a pair of clean white sneakers and tied her hair into a ponytail before heading out the door.

Meanwhile, Q had made his way to the back room, where he would watch Alexa's physical evaluation. M had come along as well, curious to see what kind of physical attributes she would have. Most of the people in the Q-Branch were not exactly classified as athletic (including Q, to some degree) and the two of them were basically there to watch her barely pass the exam.

"Let's see how good she really is," M said, as they watched James begin the test.

"Start off by doing twenty-five pull-ups and fifty push-ups," he said as he pushed his pen against his clipboard. Alexa didn't say a word and reached for the bar above her. She completed the pull-ups with ease and pressed her hands against the cold, concrete floor to begin her push-ups. It took her about a minute and a half to complete fifty push-ups and afterwards, the medical team examined her current condition to confirm that she could proceed. They expected her to be tired, but she seemed like she was barely winded. Even James was slightly surprised by her lack of a physical reaction.

"What's next?" she said.

"You have to run on this treadmill for fifteen minutes," he replied. She nodded and laced up her shoes. Alexa ran for the time she was told, which actually tired her. It had been a while since she had done so much running and it was always the one thing that could wear her down easily. When she was finished, James approached her whilst holding a pistol.

"This is the last portion of your examination. Shoot at the eight figures in the room, preferably in the head," he said. This was where Bond expected her to trip up, like most people usually did, since she didn't look like the type to have any sort of skill in handling firearms.

However, Alexa had surprised him (along with everyone else in the room) once again. She went towards the entrance and held the gun in her hand, getting a feel for the weapon before beginning her round. The cold metal, pressing against her palm, sent a sensation coursing through her veins that she had not felt in a long time. Her mind was focused on shooting now, with the rest of the world blurring into nothingness behind her. Her eyes were focused on the bulls-eyes in the room and she began walking whilst firing at each of the targets. They varied in location, height, and distance, and she found that she actually had to concentrate while she was shooting. The sound of the last gunshot echoed through the room and she set the gun down on the table.

"Did I...do well?" she said as she glanced away from the target, the world flooding into colour once more. James had taken down the papers from the targets and lined them up on the wall, for all to see.

"You hit every figure in the head, more or less in the center circles. You only missed the center on three of them, by about five or six centimeters," he said, looking stunned. "Are you sure you wouldn't prefer to be a field agent?"

"I don't think that putting myself in the line of fire is the best thing for me. I'd prefer to work in the Q-Branch. It seems much more impersonal," she said, shrugging lightly.

"I see. Well, you're done. You certainly passed, but I still deducted points for those few centimeters you missed," he replied.

"Don't remind me," Alexa muttered, looking annoyed. "I rarely miss. I must be out of practice."

"With more time in the shooting range, I'm sure your firearm skills could be excellent. Now, your next examination is in the room next door on the left, so just head over there when you're ready," James said as he headed towards the door. Alexa went off to take a shower and while she was gone, James had headed over to the room where Q and M were. "What circle of hell did you pull her out of, Q?" he demanded.

"None of them. I just...bumped into her on my way home," Q replied with a sigh.

"She's...well, she's certainly a piece of work. I didn't expect her to do that well," M said, chuckling slightly.

"How can she shoot like that?" James demanded.

"No idea," Q said with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "It's impressive, if not a bit dubious."

"Well, let's see what kind of things Dr. Howard can unearth in the psychology eval," M said as the three men headed out of the room. They stood in front of the mirrored window outside of the small room where Dr. Howard waited. Alexa came by after ten minutes and she took a seat at the chair in the center of the room.

"Hello," she said softly, staring at the man who sat directly across from her. He had blue eyes that crinkled at the corners and a jovial expression to match. Alexa personally thought he looked like Father Christmas but she would never actually say that out loud.

"Good morning. You must be Alexandra. I'm Dr. Howard, and I'll be conducting your psychological exam," the man said.

"Well, Dr. Howard...what exactly does this test entail?" she asked hesitantly. Alexa didn't like people poking around in her mind and she wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

"It's two tests, actually. We will start with a few questions, followed by the Rorschach test," he said.

"That seems fair," she said.

"Please try not to think too much about these questions. I would like for you to say the first thing that comes to mind," he said.

"I'll make sure to do that," Alexa replied.

"Alright. In this scenario, you are walking in the woods. Who are you walking with?" he said.

"Nobody," she said automatically. Alexa could hear his pen scratching against the page and she waited for the next question.

"You now see an animal. What kind of animal is it?" he said.

"A bear," Alexa said.

"What interaction takes place between you and the animal?" Dr. Howard asked.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I walk away, but I keep a gun pointed at him in case he tries to eat me, which he probably will."

"Alright. You walk deeper in the woods. You enter a clearing and before you is your dream house. Describe its size," he said.

"It would be large, about two stories," she replied, automatically thinking of her home in Kodino.

"Is your dream house surrounded by a fence?"

"Yes," she said, wondering what kinds of questions these were. They were quite strange, and she didn't see how this could reflect on her personality.

"Alright. You enter the house and walk to the dining area, where you see the dining room table. Describe what you see on or around the table," he said.

"There is a tablecloth on the table and chairs, with a flower on the surface of the table," she said, shrugging slightly. "What else would I find there?"

"That depends on you, Miss Abbott. Now, we'll move on to the Rorschach test," Dr. Howard said as his hand scribbled notes across the page. He moved his chair, so that he sat next to her. The man pulled out a set of photographs and set the on the table.

"Please take a look at this first blot and tell me what you see. Feel free to elaborate, if needed," he said as he held the card. Alexa stared at the blot and nodded slowly.

"I see a face, like those you carve on a jack-o-lantern. I also see a mask of some sort," she said instantaneously.

"Good. What about this?" he said as he moved on to the next card, which consisted of grey, connected shapes.

"They're two bears, holding hands. They seem happy," Alexa said.

"Alright. Tell me what this is, Miss Abbott," he said as he held up the third card.

"It's two male figures. The red blots on the side look like stomachs," she said. Alexa saw him hold up the next image and her brow furrowed slightly.

"It's a...tall man, standing," she said thoughtfully.

"Interesting response. Care to elaborate why you think so?" Dr. Howard said.

"It just looks like it," she shrugged.

"Would you be afraid to approach such a man, or get close to him?" he asked.

"I would think so. He looks stern, unapproachable. It makes me a bit...uncomfortable," she said. Dr. Howard glanced at her for a moment and nodded slowly, noting her response.

The next card, she had identified as a bat while the following was described as two symmetrical boats. The seventh card was grey and seemed to be of two women talking while the eight was an array of colours, with pink, blue, grey, and orange ink. Alexa thought it was nice to have colour in the cards and identified it as two animals.

The ninth puzzled her to some extent, and she struggled to see something in it. "I see what looks like a monster, but that's about all I can say," she sighed.

Dr. Howard raised an eyebrow at this response, since it was one he did not get very often and made note of its meaning on his paper. "What about this last one? List everything you see in this," he said as he held up the paper.

It was a bright jumble of blues, pinks, greys, greens, oranges, and yellows. She liked the colours and found things easily. "I see some blue spiders, grey crabs, and rabbit head on the green bits," she said.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"It looks like you're examining a slide under a microscope," she said.

"I see. That brings us to the end of our examination, Miss Abbott. Thank you for coming in," he said, shaking her hand.

"When will I receive my results?" she asked.

"I must discuss them with the others first before they tell you," he said as he wrote swiftly across the page. Dr. Howard stood up and pushed in his chair. "Please wait here," he said. Dr. Howard left the room and went into the side room to review his results with the other men.

"What do you have for us, Dr. Howard?" Q said.

"She's mentally sound, but she's got a few things here and there that make her...different from what I usually see," he said.

"Explain each aspect of the exam," M said. "What do you make of her?"

"Well, the first question I asked was meant to determine the most important person in her life. She said no one, so I assume that she's been alone for the majority of her life. The size of animal she visualized is representative of her perception of the size of her problems. She seems to think that she has big problems," he said.

"What about the other questions?" James said curiously.

"She said that would walk away from the bear, keeping a gun pointed at it because she knew it would attack her. That told me several things, like that she was cautious with her problems and wary of getting involved. She's also a bit of a realist, in the sense that she tends to expect the worst in any situation. Miss Abbott is fairly motivated to resolve these issues, given her response to the fourth question and the fifth question told me that she's a reclusive woman," Dr. Howard said.

"So, she keeps to herself and builds fences figuratively to keep people away," Q said.

"Precisely. She doesn't make friends easily with others and that most likely came from her childhood. The items she listed in her response to the sixth question are indicative that she is happy, to some extent, but generally not," he said.

"What about the ink blot test? I never did understand those," M said.

"Ah, those yielded much more interesting results than I expected. Her response to the first blot told me (from a psychological standpoint) that she is a bit neurotic. She looks a little too much into things, which I noticed when she said she saw a face in the ink. Most people do not see that, and instead find a butterfly or bat," he said.

"Now, the second was a bit unexpected, since she said she saw bears. The fact that she did not see human figures indicates that she has trouble relating to people so you might want to watch her social interactions around the office. Don't be surprised if she has trouble expressing emotions and things like that properly," Dr. Howard continued.

"What about the third?" James asked.

"She gave a normal response to this one but the fourth was the one that caused some further speculation on my part," he said. "She said she saw a tall man standing, that he looked stern and unapproachable. This card is supposed to signify her stance towards men and that tells me that she is uncomfortable around men and that she is a bit wary of approaching them."

"I'll keep that in mind when I'm with her, then," Q said. "Anything else of particular interest?"

"Well, her responses to cards five through eight were perfectly normal but the ninth indicated that she had poor social development in growing up. This further fuels my assumption that she was by herself most of the time," he said.

"Right. Overall, what do you think of her?" M said.

"The results from her tests lead me to believe that Alexandra Abbott is a sensible woman, if not overtly cautious in her endeavors. Initially, she seems shy (especially with men) but she recovers from it eventually. Miss Abbott is also a woman who does not make friends easily but in the instance that she makes one, she will treasure such a relationship and will expect the same sort of loyalty in return. It would be very hard to lose her trust and conversely, to earn it back. Overall, she passes my examination," Dr. Howard said.

"Excellent. Q, you can go tell her she passed. I'll go back to my office. Bond, you need to go down to visit Moneypenny later. She said she had something for you," M said.

"Something from Eve? Hmm, I'll be looking forward to that. See you later, Q," James said as he headed off with M. Q went back into the room where Alexa was, with the folder tucked under his arm. Their eyes met and she stood up from her seat.

"Let's go," he said as he led her out of the room. They went back out into the hallway and she waited patiently for the elevator to bring them back to the main floor.

"Did I pass?" she finally said as she stared up at him.

"You've met my standards and you've been declared as both physically and psychologically stable. You are now officially part of the Q-Branch," he said as they walked back into the room.

"Am I really?" Alexa said, her eyes bright with excitement.

"Yes. Your desk is over there, near the door. You'll start tomorrow at eight o'clock sharp. Work will end at five but you may choose to stay later. The security guard will give you a pass tomorrow morning to let you in. Try not to be late, as tardiness is a pet peeve of mine," he said.

"Thank you, Q. I look forward to working here," she said as she briskly shook his hand.

"It's not a problem. I'll see you tomorrow, then," he said. Alexa said goodbye and headed out the door, unable to keep a grin off her face. She could not help but smile at this point, because she felt glad to know that she had a job that could impact bigger things and that it would be more important than protecting a bank. She truly felt excited, knowing that she had finally found that higher purpose she had been searching for.

* * *

That's all for this one! I hope you liked each aspect of the chapter and I really hope it wasn't too long. I might be able to get the next chapter up in a week or so. Leave a review if you'd like to and have a fantastic day :)


	5. Chapter 4

Well, look who finally got around to writing this! But seriously, sorry for the wait. Again, thanks to **TimeLady945** for the review (I'm glad you liked the psychology test bit, but the way) and I hope everyone will like this chapter too :)

* * *

_You always get a special kick on your first day, no matter how many you've gone through. You look forward to it like a birthday party when you're a kid. You think something wonderful is going to happen. _

-**_Joe DiMaggio_**

* * *

Today was the day.

Yes, today was the day Alexa would officially begin her work at the MI6. It was only fair to say she was excited, having woken up on time for once. She rushed around her home, eating her breakfast and preparing for work. Alexa brushed her unruly mane behind her shoulders and pulled on a demure, light blue dress that flared past her knees, paired with black flats. She tossed her empty cup of coffee in the sink and headed to the bathroom, making ready to leave.

Before she left home, she put on a necklace with a small, brass key on the chain. Alexa never left without it and although it was simple in its appearances, it was one of her most treasured possessions. It was the key to her home in Kodino and she always slipped it under the crease her dress made. She put on her coat and grabbed an umbrella, seeing that it was raining lightly outside.

Alexa soon left the house and walked to the Tube stop, where she headed back to the Barbican to get to the tunnels near Sheffield Market. She walked briskly down the street, unsure of what to expect today but was excited nonetheless.

Alexa headed to the security desk, where she received her permanent pass inside the building. She held it in her hand whilst going through the various checkpoints. Alexa finally made it past the last scanner and stood at the stair steps, attempting to remember where the Q-Branch was. She looked to her right and found herself feeling intimidated by the people around her. Alexa thought it would be completely juvenile to ask for directions and she racked her brain to remember where she had gone with Joy yesterday.

"Sorry, are you lost?" a voice said behind her. Alexa turned around to look into the eyes of a woman with curly brown hair and tanned skin. She was dressed elegantly and was taller than Alexa, in her high heels. The woman possessed sharp, striking features that complemented her fierce eyes but she still managed to keep a pleasant smile on her lips.

"Do you mind telling me where the Q-Branch is?" Alexa said, her cheeks flushing red with embarrassment.

"No need to look so embarrassed! Here, I'll take you," she said as she led Alexa to the elevator. There was something about this woman that put Alexa at ease and she felt her initial discomfort disappearing. She found that it was nice to know that someone was actually nice enough to lead her to the Q-Branch.

"Thank you," Alexa said gratefully. The woman pressed the button for the fourth floor and turned back to face her.

"So, are you a friend of Q's?" she said curiously.

"Not really. He recently hired me. I took my final examinations yesterday and it's my first day today," Alexa explained.

"Oh, I see! You must be Alexa then. James told me about you yesterday. My name is Eve Moneypenny," she said, holding out her hand.

"Um, well, it's nice to meet you, Eve," Alexa said as she shook her hand. "What did he say about me?"

"He said you did incredibly well in shooting and that it's a shame that you have to work at that dreary old place," Eve said.

"The Q-Branch doesn't seem as dreary as he paints it to be," Alexa said. "It seems okay..."

"Well, that's James for you. It's not bad in the Q-Branch but he just hates going there, pretty much because he still owes Q money for wrecking his inventions," Eve chuckled. The doors opened with a loud ding and she stepped out into the hall with Eve. They advanced down the corridor and Alexa opened the door to the Q-Branch, where she saw Q already working on something. He turned to face her and she noted the stern expression on his face, which made her nervous.

"Alexa, you are late by about five minutes," Q pointed out.

"I'm sorry. I got lost," she admitted.

"Give the girl a break, Q. It's her first day," Eve protested. It was two against one and he figured that he wouldn't even try to argue with Eve. If she could win argument against James Bond, then there was no way Q stood a chance. He simply rolled his eyes and turned back to his computer.

"Fine, whatever. Just get to work," he grumbled. Alexa said goodbye to Eve and took a seat at her desk.

"Erm...what exactly am I suppose to be doing?" she said hesitantly.

"M wants us to develop new gadgetry for the field agents to use. I would like a blueprint with the specifications on my desk by the end of the day," he said, without turning around. Some of the other people in the room glanced back at him questioningly. He had told them three days ago that it was due this day and it seemed a bit strange that he would give Alexa only one day to work on it while they had at least two days. However, he gave them a look that told them not to say anything and they soon realized his true intentions. Q wasn't expecting her to actually design and work out the specifications in one day and was merely testing her abilities, to see how far she could go in one day.

Alexa had her suspicions of what he was doing from the start, given the way people glanced back at him but she chose to ignore them for the time being. She was already off to a bad start, since she had come in late so she figured that she would just have to cope for now. If he was going to play that game like she had suspected, then she would accept his challenge, while doing an excellent job with it as well.

Alexa took a sheet of paper and a pencil and began to think. What could she make that would benefit a field agent? It had to be something that they had at all times, but was still normal enough for them to wear or use. She figured that few of them wore rings to symbolize marriage while on a mission, so a ring design was out. It had to be something inconspicuous, and after fifteen minutes, she came up with her design.

It was a watch, one that could be altered to suit the styles of both men and women. The watch itself was not the main focus of the weapon, but the chronographic dial that surrounded the face of the watch. It would be divided into two layers, where the first would be the metal plate covering the dial and the second would have a small chip with a wire attached to it. Her idea was that if you turned it all the way around once, it would transmit your location. If you turned it twice, it would trigger an explosive system inside the watch and detonate it in about fifteen seconds.

Alexa tied her hair into a ponytail and began to work out the mathematics to program the chip, which would turn her idea into a reality. She dove headfirst into her work, finding the binary values that the chip needed to identify and respond to in order to transmit location and trigger the explosive mechanism. Alexa spent the majority of the morning on the programming aspect of the project, with her hand swiftly scribbling notes across the page.

She skipped lunch and kept her blood sugar up with a cup of coffee. Alexa more or less ignored the world around her (it wasn't like anyone was bothering her anyway) and worked steadily on the watch design. She was like this whenever she started something, unrelenting until she would finally be forced to stop. Alexa was fully aware that she would have to do her best to get a project of this scale done in at least nine hours, so she had to move and think quickly.

While she constructed the watch, Alexa scribbled down her calculations on several papers that didn't seem to make sense to anyone else but her and drew up blueprints for the watch's design. She made sure to be as thorough as she could in such a short period of time. Alexa attempted to work out every physical and technical aspect of the watch that she could think of, even going so far as to find the best materials to construct it with. After a day of hard work, she was finally done. There was a distinct buzz in the back of her head and she felt slightly dizzy. Alexa was surprised to see that she was the only one left in the office, save for Q. She stood up and set the finished papers on Q's desk.

"Here is my design, Q. The papers attached to it are the specifications," Alexa said, feeling triumphant. He turned around, unaware that she had been there this entire time. Q honestly hadn't noticed, since he had been so engrossed in his current endeavors. Despite the fact that he really hadn't taken any notice of her existence for the last nine hours, it did not bother Alexa in the slightest. She couldn't help but feel excited as she watched him inspect her work carefully, as this was her first test.

"Interesting. What sort of materials would we need to make this watch of yours?" he said thoughtfully.

"An iron alloy such as celestrium or spring steel would be sufficient, since they're lightweight and durable, not to mention malleable," she replied smoothly.

"Well, I will admit that the design in itself is excellent. You nearly covered everything," Q said as he set the paper on the desk.

"What did I miss?" Alexa said, looking puzzled.

"There was a few aspects of the chronographic dial that should be revised. It needs a safety mechanism at the dial to ensure that the agent doesn't accidentally blow themselves up," he said. Her face fell and she nodded slowly.

"I must have forgotten about that, then," she said lightheartedly, in an attempt to not feel like she was a complete idiot. Alexa couldn't believe that she had overlooked such an important aspect of the design. However, she reminded herself that there would always be something to fix because getting something perfectly on the first try was more or less impossible.

"I didn't think you could process both the design and specifications in one day. There are still a few flaws but I'm certain that you can fix those soon. With the work you did today, I would assume that the watch will be done by the end of this week. It seems like I made a good choice," he said, looking quite pleased. Something clicked in her mind and her initial suspicions were confirmed.

"Then I was right. This was a test then, wasn't it?" Alexa said as she folded her arms across her chest.

"I was just making sure I made the right choice," he said with a shrug. "I wasn't sure if you would be capable of working with developing gadgetry, given that your former occupation was focused on network security."

"Oh. I suppose that's a valid reason for a test, then," she said. He merely nodded and Alexa went back to her desk. She glanced around, staring at the clock and was surprised to see that it was almost six o'clock. Alexa picked up her bag and pushed her chair in, the wheels creaking softly against the concrete floor.

"I'll be going, then," she said. "Is there anything in particular that I should work on tomorrow?"

"I'd like you to fix the flaws in the watch design. There's also an external hard drive that needs to be decrypted. I'll put it on your desk before I leave tonight," Q said.

"Alright. I can do that," she said as she headed toward the door.

"Overall, you did fairly well for a day's worth of work," he said as he turned to face her. "Just do the same thing again tomorrow."

"Oh. Well, thank you," she mumbled, turning pink. Alexa hastily said goodbye and left Q alone in the office. She headed out of the building and made her way into the street, where she went to the Tube station to go home.

As she walked into her home, she could not help but feel a bit giddy after her work today. She was interested in the idea of tinkering around with objects and making equipment for the agents to use. It was certainly much more different than what she had dealt with at Enigma Tech and it excited her. Alexa hoped that she would not experience any problems and also hoped that this would finally be the opportunity that could blot out the past that Operation Chetiri had created.

* * *

Well, that was a lovely first day, wasn't it? Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll probably try to get another one written by next Saturday.

Leave a review if you'd like! I love reading feedback :)


	6. Chapter 5

Here is the next installment in _**Agent Chetiri**_! Thanks again for the review, **TimeLady945**. I'm glad I have Q's character down :) This skips ahead two months and I hope time skips don't bug anyone because I will probably do more in the future.

Anyway, one of the Holmes brothers will make a slight appearance in this chapter! Mycroft will be a former agent because I think that would be a logical way for him to become involved with the government. Start small, build connections and whatnot. God, I love Bondlock.

I will also introduce the other workers in the Q-Branch as well! They're OC's because I can't figure out the names of the actual people working there but whatever. I hope you like them as well.

So, enjoy your reading escapades!

* * *

_If you don't make the time to work on creating the life you want, you're going to be forced to spend a lot of time dealing with a life you don't want._

-_**Kevin Ngo**_

* * *

About two months had passed since Alexa's first day at the Q-Branch. She had created the sort of life that she wanted everything seemed to be running smoothly and she was prosperous in her endeavors. Alexa wouhad been given a variety of things to work on, with each day being different. Her regular duties included keeping an eye on the firewalls, decrypting long strings of code, encrypting specified files, and developing new weapons. It was rather exciting and she never knew what to expect as she walked into the room each day.

Alexa also became a bit more acquainted with the five other members of the Q-Branch and she found that it was nice to have friends. It was easy to befriend them, even in her usually shy state and she found that she smiled and laughed more frequently as a result of having real friends. Although it was a small group of techies who were about six or seven years older than her, they were more than happy to make friends with her, upon realizing that she was on par with their level of intelligence. Unlike her previous co-workers, they weren't dull and spoke to her as a friend, rather than speaking only on businesslike terms. They were all a bit strange, in some way, but it made for a light-hearted and rather entertaining work environment.

There was Michael Grimm, who was a former accountant with a penchant for algorithms and software engineering. He was a tall and broad-shouldered man who looked intimidating but never failed to eagerly present her with new photographs of his beloved two-year-old son and his wife. George Crenshaw was the stout and rather portly man who specialized in networking and programming. He had a loud and booming laugh to accompany his good-natured sense of humor.

The two other men were twin brothers from Ireland, Ryan and William Reid. Ryan was the quieter one of the two and although he did not talk very much but was quite adept at keeping the secrets of the MI6 out of the public eye. William's talents lay in developing weapons and making feasible designs that could be tailored to fit an agent's needs. He was the more outgoing man, who (if prompted) could talk for hours about his fiancée.

Finally, there was Joy Nakamura, the woman who had brought her to the building on her first day. She was a witty woman, with a knack for code and decryption. Alexa felt the most comfortable with her, given that she was the only other woman who worked in the Q-Branch. Joy was the person whom Alexa would spend her lunch hour with, along with Eve Moneypenny.

Alexa had come to know Eve a bit better after their first meeting, after Joy had re-introduced them to each other. Eve occupied the highest desk job in the MI6, which was being M's assistant. She engaged frequently in intelligent banter with James Bond and it was hard for Alexa to determine whether they were actually in a relationship or merely flirting with each other. Eve had eventually told her that she was dating James, even though they gave each other a few quips here and there.

The three women usually spent their lunch hour at Little Britain, getting coffee from various shops in the streets. Like regular human beings, they gossiped about their love lives, crap telly, and the other people in the MI6. It was from them that Alexa had found out that Q was only eight months older than her, which was surprising since he was the boss.

In the month that she had been in the Q-Branch, it had been easy for her to figure out why Q was the boss, even if he was quite young. Alexa had quickly realized that the man was utterly brilliant, a technological genius, so to speak. She would glance up occasionally to see him working intently on a project and find that same endeavor to be finished by the end of the day. Alexa had never seen someone with his level of expertise in technology and she found it quite impressive, if not attractive. She admitted to herself that he was fairly handsome. Alexa found that she liked his tousled brown hair that never seemed to be entirely tidy and admired his striking green eyes. He was incredibly smart too, which was what she really wanted in a man. As the saying went, brainy was the new sexy.

However, she tried not to be too interested because she knew that he was way out of her league, coupled with the fact that he was her boss. She felt that it would be a tad bit inappropriate to try to start something with him and that it would make her appear in the wrong light. The last thing she wanted was to be remembered as the girl who climbed the social ladder by flirting. Besides, she didn't even bother trying because she knew that she would be completely out of her element. She was trained to kill, not to flirt. In fact, Alexa would make a point to avoid his gaze as much as possible, to dissuade her from thinking of any romantic thoughts.

Throughout her time at the Q-Branch, Alexa noted that Q worked in a somewhat slapdash manner and organized things according to what he felt was right. It was a strange way of working, but it seemed to work for him and was quite interesting to watch. She soon found out that he had very little patience for communication. Alexa noted that he could be a little standoffish and sarcastic at times and sometimes went for long periods of time without speaking to anyone. He was what normal people considered to be a workaholic and he was practically married to his line of work. Q was also quite a perfectionist, who did not stop until his creations had achieved a state of near perfection.

On top of all of that, he was weirdly strict about punctuality. Alexa was not sure if he noticed or not but she always walked in with one minute to spare. His quirks were admittedly a bit strange and could be rather frustrating at times but it did not disrupt her work. At the end of the day, she was usually the last to leave, save for Q. They hardly said anything to each other whilst working on a project. However, he was not ignoring her and Q actually enjoyed her company. Both of them found solace in each other's silence, finding that frequent, idle chatter was irrelevant. They would sometimes engage in short and rather random conversations, where she found that she got to know him a little bit better. Q also became better acquainted with her and silently took note of her habits and different qualities. However, other than words, that was the extent of the regular contact.

Her first real interaction with Q would come about a week later. It was a rather blustery November morning and Alexa walked into the room, one minute early again. The room was abuzz with activity, with different people working on their individual duties. She hung her coat on the rack as said a quiet hello to Joy and Michael as she walked in. Alexa took a seat at her desk and smoothed her wind-blown hair down, before taking a look at the papers on her desk. Without warning, Q turned around to look directly at her. "Alexa," he said.

She glanced up curiously, at the sound of her name being called. "Yes?" she said.

"Do you do that on purpose?" Q said as he glanced at her.

"Do what?" Alexa replied, looking puzzled.

"In the past five weeks that you've been working here, you have walked into work with exactly one minute to spare," he said.

"Ah. I didn't think you noticed," she said, smiling slightly.

"Any particular reason why?"

"I really don't know," she lied, not wanting to admit that she only did it to make a jab to his strange obsession with punctuality.

"Are you sure?" Q said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. We're all free to have our little quirks, aren't we?" Alexa replied.

"Fair point," he said as he turned back around. Q went back to working on his current endeavor and Alexa looked back down at her papers. It took all morning and a skipped lunch to create and finish a new weapons design and she took a grateful sip of a warm cappuccino to keep herself going. At around four, she picked up the blueprints for a palm-activated gun and headed off to William's desk to finalize the design he was working on and its specifications.

"Hey, Alexa. What do you need?" William said as she approached him.

"I'm here to check the final design of that gun you're designing," she said as she glanced back at the papers in her hand.

"Well, here it is. I finished putting in the recoil spring for both of them and both pistols are pretty much done," he said as he presented both guns.

"Why are there two?" she asked, looking puzzled.

"One is accustomed to Q's handprint and the other is for Bond. Q has a copy of each gun we've designed, for testing purposes," William said as he watched her pick up each pistol. They were more or less identical, which could present some safety hazards.

"Do you have any correction fluid, William?" she asked as she looked at each portion of the pistol.

"Uh, yeah. Here," he said as he pulled out a bottle of correction fluid. She said a quiet thank you and made a small but distinct white line on the side of the trigger guard.

"What was that for?" he asked, looking puzzled.

"It's only a safety precaution. I'm assuming that Q and Bond will test both of these later and they might get then mixed up," Alexa explained.

"Good point. I'll go give these to Q," William said as he stood up. Alexa went back to her desk and began working on another weapon design. Q accepted the guns from William and put them on his desk, focusing his attention to his current endeavor. His train of thought was interrupted when he heard the door open, followed by James's familiar footsteps.

"You have good timing, Bond. Your gun is finished," he said without turning around.

"Excellent. That's what I'm here for. M is sending me off to Germany on Tuesday morning," James said as he walked over to "What is it this time?"

"Your gun has been remade, the one with the palm print activation since you lost the first one in China to (of all things) a six-hundred pound lizard," Q said, glaring at James.

"It wasn't my fault that the lizard ate it. Besides, I was too busy fighting a man to even notice that it was gone," James grumbled. He picked up one of the pistols and inspected it carefully. "Does it work?"

"Of course it does. I would be ashamed if it didn't," Q said indignantly.

"Let's go test it, then," he replied as he picked up the other gun. Q let out a sigh and followed him out the door, while carrying his mug of tea in his right hand. He took a sip of it and continued down the hall to the shooting room. Q set down his now empty mug on the table by the door and took one of the guns. He put his hand on the pad and was unable to pull the trigger, so he handed the gun to James.

"This one is yours," he said. James held the gun in his hand and began firing his round of bullets, in order to see if the gun was sufficient.

Meanwhile, it was rather quiet in the Q-Branch after the two men left. George and Ryan had seized Q's absence as an opportunity to go off on a coffee break, leaving only Michael, William, Joy, and Alexa in the room. The silence was interrupted by an intern who walked into the room. He was rather scrawny and he held a letter in his hand. "Where's Q?" he said, looking confused.

"You won't find him here," Michael said, without looking up from his computer.

"M told me that this was for him. He said it was important and to give it to him immediately," the man said. "Can one of you give this to Q?"

"I'm busy," Michael said as he typed quickly on his computer.

"So am I," William replied, with a dismissive wave of his screwdriver. Both men instantly looked at Joy, who glared at them.

"Don't look at me! I'm decrypting something!" Joy exclaimed. Alexa looked up from her blueprint and she let out a sigh.

"I'll do it," she said as she stood up. Alexa took the paper from the man and stared at it briefly.

* * *

_I'm coming by for a visit tomorrow._

_-Mycroft_

* * *

"Who's Mycroft?" Alexa said, looking confused. Everyone immediately looked up at the sound of her words and Michael headed over to Alexa. He read the letter and a smirk spread out on his face.

"Mycroft was a former agent. He was 005 to be precise. He is also Q's eldest brother," he explained.

"I can't believe he's coming to visit. He hasn't visited in months now," Joy said, shaking her head slightly.

"Well, it's only understandable. Everyone knows that he and Q don't exactly see eye to eye," William interjected.

"That's putting it mildly. They don't get on at all," Michael said.

"It'll certainly be an eventful day tomorrow," Joy said. She glanced at the note and gave it back to Alexa.

"Good luck giving that to Q. He certainly won't be pleased when he hears about this," Michael said.

"It can't be that bad," she said half-heartedly.

"Oh, trust me. It is that bad," Joy chuckled.

"I'll see what I can do," Alexa said as she left the room. She walked down the halls and into the shooting room, where she heard several shots being fired. Alexa poked her head in and stepped in, upon hearing the firing cease. She spotted them standing about thirty feet from her and she saw James step back slightly.

"Final test: try to shoot me," James said. Q grabbed the pistol and held it in his hand, whilst raising it to be at eye level with James. As she walked near them, she noted the distinct white mark near the trigger and stared at him in horror. Q was holding the gun accustomed to his palm-print! Alexa tried to think of some quick way to stop him and when words could not find their way to her lips, she instead threw the mug the sat at the table next to her at the gun to keep him from firing.

The white mug hit the pistol roughly, knocking it out of his hand. The mug broke rather loudly, shattering into ceramic shards that fell to the floor. The entire room seemed to go dead silent and she could see James stifling laughter in the corner. Q stared at Alexa and let go of the gun, letting it fall to the floor.

"My mug! What the hell was that for, Alexa?" Q snapped. Her initial thoughts were something akin to panic and "he's going to kill me". She could not meet his gaze and stared at the floor.

"Er...that gun was fitted to your palm print, not Bond's," she stammered, struggling to recollect her jumbled thoughts.

"You're sure about this?" Q said, raising an eyebrow.

"I marked yours with correction fluid just to keep them separated. You would have shot him otherwise," Alexa said.

"Well, you could have just said something. You didn't have to destroy my mug in the process," Q grumbled.

"Sorry," she said. She began to pick up the shards from the floor Alexa hurriedly gathered the shards and felt the edge of the ceramic mug cut into the side of her hand.

"Ouch," she muttered as she wiped the blood off on her skirt.

"You're bleeding," he said absentmindedly.

"What an astute observation. Your brothers would be proud of you, Q," James scoffed. Q shot him a dirty look that told him to shut up and picked up her hand, letting the pieces fall to the floor.

"Are you alright?" he asked as he inspected her hand. His fingers against hers sent a sensation through her veins and she felt her cheeks turn a slight shade of red. Alexa quickly looked down and she snatched her hand away.

"I'll be fine," she said as she continued to pick up the pieces on the floor, avoiding his gaze.

"Well, alright. Did you need something?" Q asked, causing her to look up.

"Oh, one of the interns came by and said M had a note for you," she said as she handed him the paper. He took it and began to read, while she attempted to stop the bleeding in her hand. Alexa stood up with the broken pieces in her hand and she heard Q crumple the paper in his hand.

"Take this and throw it away," Q muttered as he handed it back to her.

"Q, is everything okay?" she said hesitantly, almost afraid to ask him.

"Of course not!" he snapped. Alexa flinched and she mumbled out a hasty apology, before turning around and walking as quickly as she could out of the room. The two men watched the timid woman leave and Q suddenly felt guilty for his actions.

"There was no need to snap at her," James remarked. Q let out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair.

"I know that. But you know how I am whenever Mycroft comes around," he muttered.

"I can see that. Really, it's a bit amusing to watch," James said. "But really, you should make it up to her somehow. She did save me from impending disaster, while sustaining an injury in the process and she was only trying to deliver the message."

"I don't even know how I would do that. I've never been too keen on these sort of matters," Q said as he picked up the guns.

"Take her to lunch tomorrow. It gives you an excuse to avoid your brother and to make it up to her as well," he replied with a shrug. Q stopped and realized that for once, James was right.

"You know, you're actually right. That would be the best way to handle this situation," Q said.

"See? I'm not a hopeless case after all. You should have more faith in me," James said with a grin.

"But still, you're James Bond. I wouldn't hold out too much hope," Q chuckled as they went out the door.

* * *

Alexa had left the shooting room, tossing both the note and the mug in the bin. Alexa felt guilty for breaking his mug and making him snap at her and it was easy for her to decide to leave work at a normal time. It was a little past five and she figured that she would leave as quickly as she could, in order to avoid running into Q. Alexa hurried through the door and the people who had stayed behind (mainly George, Michael, and Joy) looked up as she came in.

"So, how bad was it?" Joy said.

"Well, Q almost shot James because they mixed up the pistols. In turn, I threw his mug at him to make him stop. I managed to cut myself and he also snapped at me for giving him that note," Alexa said. The entire room fell silent and Michael shook his head, looking sorry for her.

"I think it would be in your best interest to avoid him for a bit," Michael said.

"What? Why?" she said as she dabbed at her wound with her handkerchief.

"Alexa, you do know who gave him that mug, right? Hasn't someone here told you?" Michael said.

"I haven't been told anything about the origin of this mug," Alexa said as she gathered her papers.

"Well, to put it mildly, Q's heart isn't entirely made of ice. He had an old girlfriend, Kate Winston, that used to work here. I remember that they dated for about six or seven months and he really seemed to like her. I heard that they had a fight over something and they broke up and she moved to America," he said. Alexa's eyes widened in shock, upon realizing the gravity of her actions.

"I just did something horrible, didn't I?" she groaned, looking mortified.

"Come now, it'll be fine," George said as he patted her reassuringly on the shoulder.

"George, I just broke a keepsake of his from an ex-girlfriend whom he seemed to really like and I also told him his older brother is coming here tomorrow. I don't think it'll be fine," Alexa said as she pulled on her coat. She looked at the clock and picked up her purse.

"I'll see all of you tomorrow," she said as she made her way towards the door. Joy stared at her retreating figure and followed after her, pulling her purse onto her shoulder.

"Alexa, just talk to him tomorrow and apologize for the mug incident," Joy insisted as she walked beside her.

"Are you mad? I can hardly talk to him on a regular basis, around all of you. There's no way I can talk to him privately like that," Alexa whispered as they exited the building. The two women walked across the brick steps and stood at the sidewalk.

"Just promise me that you'll try something, anything," Joy said. Alexa's brow furrowed and she stared at Joy rather warily.

"Hang on a minute, you aren't trying to set me up with him, are you?" she said suspiciously.

"No," Joy said, knowing that it was at least half-true. Alexa immediately gave her a look that could make even a man crack and within seconds, Joy had succumbed.

"Ok, fine. But it isn't just me. Eve is in on it too," she confessed.

"But...why? I mean, he's really quite handsome and all, but he's my boss. I can't exactly date him. It seems like I would come off the wrong way," she said.

"Although you've been working here for a month, it didn't take either of us very long to see that you two would be lovely together," Joy said. "We had to try something. I mean, it's about time the poor man fell in love again."

"Well, it's useless. I'm a complete idiot when it comes to love," Alexa mumbled, looking down at her shoes. "Besides, I highly doubt that he's interested."

"That is rubbish. I don't see why he wouldn't be interested," she said as she looked at her watch. She realized that she had a few errands to run and pulled her arm away.

"Listen, I have to run. You have to try something tomorrow, or else I'll tell him that you think he's cute," Joy said.

"No! Don't say that," Alexa exclaimed, looking horrified.

"Then live a little. Try to make him notice you somehow," she called as she walked to her car. Alexa let out a sigh, knowing that Joy's threat was real and she headed down the street. She saw a grey cloud making its way towards the horizon and within minutes, it began to rain. Alexa groaned and stared up at the sky, because she had finally realized that she had forgotten her umbrella somewhere again and she could not recall its exact location. Honestly, it seemed to be the one thing that she would forget frequently. Every emotion that had been coursing through her body had reached its breaking point and she finally snapped.

"For god's sake, can't I just catch a break today?!" she shouted, feeling utterly irritated. Several people stared at her upon hearing her scream angrily at the sky and she stormed into a shop to avoid being rained on any further.

The door opened with a click and she stepped inside, finding herself in a small and somewhat abandoned novelty shop. Alexa gave the elderly woman at the counter a small smile and proceeded to at least pretend that she was looking around. She picked up a vintage Coca-Cola themed license plate and peered curiously at darkened liquids in old jars. The store in itself was quite odd, if you actually looked closely, but Alexa had no choice but to stay here for the time being.

Her heels clicked loudly against the hardwood floor as she walked into the back area of the store. This time, something had actually caught her eye and she headed over to a small bookcase that was filled with coffee mugs. She looked at the different designs and although it took a while, she found the perfect one to replace Q's old mug.

The white mug's design was fairly simple. It was the letter Q which was stylized like the Scrabble tiles, with a small number 10 in the bottom right hand corner. It was a bit symbolistic, as Q was the most valuable letter on the Scrabble board and consequently, the hardest to play. She found herself smiling at the irony and picked it up. It was rather thick, which was good because the old mug was thick and weighted as well. She briefly wondered if he would care about the ironic nature of the gift but proceeded to pay for it anyway, feeling satisfied with her purchase.

"Is this for someone special?" the elderly woman said, interrupting her thoughts.

"Well, you could say that," Alexa said with a shrug.

"Would you like a box for this, then?"

Alexa nodded and watched as the woman put it in a small brown box while tying a red ribbon around it to hold the box together. She handed Alexa a card to go along with it and Alexa thanked the woman, while heading out of the shop. Alexa really wasn't sure of how long she had spent in the shop but she didn't care because the rain was gone.

She walked rather cheerfully across the damp street and hopped over puddles, her mood considerably better than before. After a five minute walk, she soon arrived at the Tube Station. Alexa went home and wrote a message in the card, after figuring out a plan of attack for tomorrow. She really wasn't sure if he was still angry at her or not, so she decided it would be best to play sick.

After all, wasn't that always the best way to avoid your problems?

* * *

Well, breaking that mug probably wasn't a good thing. How do you think they'll get over it? Leave a review so I can see what you think!


	7. Chapter 6

Ah, it's Saturday! I've been really excited to post this. Again, thank you to the Guest and TimeLady945 for the reviews. Both reviews were lovely, by the way :)

Anyway, I don't think I have anything really important to mention for this chapter. I should probably warn you that this is a longer chapter. There is a hint of more Bondlock and I have decided that it will take a more active role in the story so I hope that doesn't scare anyone off.

Alright, enjoy!

* * *

_Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open._

_-**John Barrymore**_

* * *

**_(November 19, 2012- 8:52 AM)_**

Yesterday's events had somewhat embarrassed Q. He wanted to talk to Alexa as soon as possible and apologize for his rather questionable behaviour. Q waited patiently for her to come in but after fifteen minutes, she had not arrived. He looked at the door behind him and wondered why she was taking so long.

"She's late," he finally said.

"Eh? Who is?" William said as he looked up.

"Alexa is fifteen minutes late. Do any of you know where she is?" Q said as he drummed his fingers against the table absentmindedly. Joy realized that Alexa was attempting to avoid him and stood up.

"I can go check on her," Joy said. "Would that be alright?"

"Go ahead," he replied. Joy nodded and she walked out of the room. She hurried to her car and drove to Alexa's house in Euston Square. Joy went up the steps and rang the bell.

"Alexa, don't be a coward. Come out of there," she said as she pounded on the door.

Alexa heard Joy knocking from her position on the couch and made ready for her performance. She had put a lot of effort into making it seem like she was sick, even going so far as staying up all night to make her skin pale and sallow. There were dark circles under her eyes and she cleared her throat several times, to make her voice hoarse. Alexa had put several tissues on her coffee table, along with a bottle of cough syrup. She wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and headed to the door. She opened the door and met the eyes of Joy.

"I'm sick, Joy. Don't even bother," she said hoarsely.

"Are you serious? When I said for you to do something, this was not what I meant."

"I didn't mean to get sick!" Alexa said.

"Well, you look terrible and all, but this seems too coincidental," Joy said suspiciously.

"I can assure you that this is real. I am legitimately sick," Alexa said with a cough. "I got caught in the rain yesterday in my way home from work. I must have caught a cold."

"You have terrible luck. Well, what do I tell Q? It seemed like he really wanted to see you today," Joy said with a benevolent grin.

"Tell him that I'm taking a sick day and that I'll come back in on Monday," she said as she sat back down on the couch. Alexa spotted the box on the side table near the door and handed it to Joy. "Here, take this."

"What's this?" Joy said as she picked up the package.

"This is for Q. I got it for him yesterday," she said. "Will you give it to him for me?"

"How sweet of you! What is it?" Joy exclaimed.

"It's a secret," Alexa said, smiling despite herself.

"Well, fine. I'll go give it to him. Get well soon, okay?" Joy said as she stepped outside.

"I will. Thank you," she called as she stared at Joy's retreating figure. Alexa went back to her couch and leaned back in the chair, letting out a sigh. She hoped that Q would like his new mug and was glad that she had evaded him, at least for now.

Joy headed back to the Q-Branch and arrived several minutes later, after parking her car and passing through the security checkpoints. She set the box on Q's desk, causing him to look up.

"What's this?" he said.

"It's a present from Alexa. I regret to inform you that she will be out for the rest of the day," Joy said.

"Why?" Q asked as he inspected the box.

"She has caught a cold, as a result of yesterday's downpour," she replied as she sat back down at her desk. Everyone was watching Q carefully now, curious to see what was in the box.

"Why are you all looking at me?" he said as he glanced around the room.

"Why would we not? People rarely give you anything anyway," Ryan quipped. Q let out a sigh, upon realizing that they were right and picked up a small card. He opened up a cream colored envelope and stared at the quick but neatly written letters on the paper.

* * *

_I apologize for what happened yesterday. I hope this will make for a viable replacement._

_-Alexa_

* * *

He opened the box and found a white mug, the same size as his old one. It was fairly nice and his lips turned up into a smirk when he caught a glimpse of its design. It was the letter Q, with a small number ten in the right hand corner. Q had instantly caught the somewhat ironic nature of the gift and set it on the table.

"Well, that's certainly nice of her," he said to himself. Q felt even more guilted by her rather sweet gesture and felt dismayed at the fact that he wouldn't get to see her until Monday.

No matter, he thought. He would just take her out to lunch on Monday and see what happened from there. Q went back to work and to his relief, his older brother had postponed their little meeting. It seemed that yet another British politician was involved in an overseas scandal and who would take care of it?

Big brother Mycroft, of course.

Q went through the rest of the day, working on various new weapons and he left the room at around six that evening. As he sat on the train bound towards his home, he couldn't help but notice how much he was looking forward for Monday and it honestly surprised him. He had not been like this since his dalliances with Kate.

At this point, Q's brain was muddled with hectic thoughts about what he really thought of Alexa. It was only fair to say that he found her interesting. They knew quite a bit about each other, but he really didn't know much about what she was like before her university years. It was almost as if she decided to keep it out on purpose, and that intrigued him. There was something different about her that he could not place. She was also eloquent and intelligent, which were both qualities that he liked that were rarely prevalent in most women that he had encountered in his life. Q also brought himself to admit that she was quite pretty. However his mind held fast to the belief that Alexa would not turn out the way Kate had because he really didn't want to fall like that for anyone again. Q thought that he wouldn't fall for her like that, but did his heart think otherwise?

Well, he would merely have to wait and see.

* * *

**_(November 19, 2012- 8:46 AM)_**

Alexa hurried around her house, getting ready to leave for work. She could not find her umbrella, which she seemed to need. Where had it gone this time? It looked terribly cloudy outside and there was a 62% chance of rain this afternoon.

She finally gave up with a groan of frustration, after tearing apart her foyer in her search efforts and slipped on her flats. Alexa smoothed her fitted, black slacks and white dress shirt before heading out the door. Alexa walked quickly and pulled her coat around her tightly, feeling the wind chill settling in her bones. She took the Tube and within minutes, had arrived at the front desk of the MI6 base.

Alexa scanned her pass and said hello to the security guard before walking briskly through the halls. She checked her watch as she stood in the elevators and strode down another hallway to get to the Q-Branch. A small smile appeared on her face as she walked into the room at 8:59 AM, yet again.

"Ah, there you are, Alexa. Punctual as always," Q said, not taking his eyes away from his laptop's screen.

"How did you know it was me?" she said as she put her coat on the coat rack.

"You have a particular way of walking. I can tell when it's you or when it's someone else. Doesn't anyone else notice this?" he said as he turned to look at everyone.

"I don't really make a point to memorize the sound of particular footsteps. That sounds tedious and somewhat crazy," Joy admitted.

"Neither do I," Michael said. "Although I'm fairly certain George does. He always seems to know if I'm coming near him."

"I don't really think about it too much but I know what Q's talking about. It's an innate sense of observation, I suppose," George said.

"Exactly. See, I'm not crazy after all," Q retorted. He returned his attention to Alexa and glanced at her. "Feeling better?"

"Yes, thank you. I apologize for notifying you of my sick day on such short notice," she said as she headed over to the bin to throw away several scrap papers.

"It's not a problem. You've got a few work orders sitting on your desk, so I think you should start on those," he said.

"Got it," Alexa said. She went back to her desk and inspected the files. Alexa had to go down to the third floor today and fix several computers in the financial records department, since they were experiencing several errors. She took her trusty Phillips screwdriver and spent the remainder of the morning rushing around the third floor. Alexa soon returned to the Q-Branch at around noon and was surprised to find that Q was not there.

"Did you fix the problems in the third floor?" Ryan said.

"Erm, yeah. Apparently, they're not as adept with computers as they said they were. They didn't even know how to turn on the firewall after it was disabled," Alexa grumbled. She set her screwdriver on the desk and looked around.

"Where's Q?" she asked.

"He's in a meeting with M. We're not entirely sure of what exactly it's about but we should find out soon," George replied.

"Well, alright," Alexa said.

"Oh, and Alexa?" he said. "Could you keep an eye on Bond? He's in the training facilities and he's testing his new gun."

"That sounds fine. Why would I need to watch him?" she said.

"Er..." George said, attempting to put the matter in the simplest terms possible.

"In case you've forgotten, he has the horrible tendency of breaking all of his weapons," Joy called as she took a few papers out of the printer. "It's rather troublesome, really."

"That's right. He broke something I made for him a while ago," Alexa said, her expression darkening. She stood up and headed towards the door.

"I'll see what I can do," she called. She left the room and headed down the hallway, to the elevators. Alexa went to the second floor and walked into the training room, where she saw Bond firing a gun. Eve stood near him and watched him carefully, making a comment here and there about his shooting style. After several shots, the firing ceased to a halt and both looked up at the sound of Alexa's soft and distinct footsteps.

"Hey, Alexa. What are you doing here?" Eve said.

"They told me to keep an eye on Bond," she said as she took a seat next to her.

"Have they said anything else about me?" James said as he set down the gun.

"I've been told that you break all of our weapons, which, you do," Alexa replied with a glare. "You broke that pair of transmitter cuff links I made for you."

"I...well, I won't lie. Yes, I did," he said, throwing up his hands. "Did you know that they explode if thrown in water?"

"The metal was made of cesium. Of course it would explode in the presence of water. I even told you to keep it away from wet surfaces," Alexa sighed.

"Well, one man lost his life that way but then again, it wasn't much of a loss," he shrugged. "Where's Q?"

"Apparently, he's in a meeting with M," she replied.

"Strange. Q never usually deals with M," James said as he crossed his arms. "What did he do this time?"

"I don't know what they could be talking about. M more or less kicked me out of the office for the time being and sent me here to watch him," Eve said with a shrug.

"Hmm. Well, I'm sure it's nothing. Carry on, Bond," Alexa said as she leaned back in her chair. James began his daily hand-to-hand combat training with another field agent and she saw Eve turn her attention away from him to face her.

"How was your little break?" Eve said.

"Horrible. I became sick after Thursday because I forgot an umbrella and I was caught in the downpour," Alexa said.

"I couldn't help but hear about the cute little mug you got for him. It seems he's quite pleased with it," she said, grinning widely at her.

"Well...I'm glad he likes it. I didn't know if he would," Alexa said as she looked down at the ground.

"Of course he would like it! It's slightly ironic in the nature of its design and we all know that Q highly enjoys ironic humor," Eve said.

"I wasn't sure, alright? End of story," Alexa said, with a roll of her eyes. "At least he has a mug to replace the one I broke."

"Did someone tell you the story behind that one, by the way?" she asked.

"Oh, I am fully aware of what happened. That's why I felt really bad about doing it," Alexa muttered.

"Did you know that he hasn't hired a woman in the Q-Branch since she left?"

"Really? What about me, then?" she said curiously.

"I don't know why he hired you. Maybe be he was short on staff and time, so he needed to find someone. Who knows, maybe he just liked you," Eve said with a shrug.

"I highly doubt that. The man is practically married to his work. He doesn't have time for that sort of thing," Alexa scoffed. She saw James knock the other agent flat on his back and simultaneously, the door opened. Q walked in whilst holding a black box, which caused both women to look up.

"Speak of the devil," Eve smirked.

"What was that, Eve?" Q said, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, it's nothing you need to worry about," she retorted.

"Whatever you say. Have you been keeping an eye on Bond, Alexa?" he said.

"Yes, I have. He hasn't broken anything yet and the weapons seem to be functioning correctly," she said as she sat up in the chair.

"Well, that's good. Can you work through your lunch hour today?" he asked.

"I suppose I can. Is something wrong?" she asked as she stood up.

"Two computers came in from M's office and the hardware needs to updated. They could be a potential flaw in our system if they stay that way any longer," Q replied, while setting the black box on the table.

"Yeah, I can get started on those," she said.

"I apologize for making you do this now, but it's something that can't wait," he said apologetically. Alexa was a bit taken aback by his genuine regret and shook her head.

"It's okay, Q. I understand how important security is here, so it naturally takes precedence. Besides, one missed lunch isn't much of a casualty," Alexa said, smiling slightly. She turned around briefly to pick up a few papers that had fallen onto her chair.

"Not if it's with me," Q muttered.

"Huh?" she said as she turned to face him again.

"It's nothing. I'll remember to make up this missed lunch somehow," he said. Her eyes widened and she quickly averted her gaze.

"You really don't have to, but thank you for the thought," she said. If she had looked up, she would have caught the smirk on James's face. However, she didn't notice and made her way to the door but was stopped when she heard James call her name.

"Alexa, wait. I need you to do something for me," he said.

"What is it? I was going to do something," Alexa said as she turned around, with a slightly annoyed look on her face.

"Come here. It'll only take a second," he said. She glanced back at Q for a moment before letting out a sigh and heading towards James.

"What do you need?"

"Fight me," James said as he held up an arm. The request was rather unexpected and came as a surprise to everyone in the room. Alexa stared at him rather incredulously and shook her head defiantly.

"Please tell me you're joking," she said.

"Nonsense. I've always wondered if you could hold your own in a fight," he replied.

"How would you even arrive to such a question?" Alexa said, folding her arms across her chest.

"It was when you took your physical examinations. You're so...unassuming and it was really quite unexpected to see you shoot like that, which led me to wonder about your true physical abilities," James said.

"Don't try to force her into fighting you, Bond. That's not entirely fair," Q argued.

"Exactly. She doesn't even seem willing to do it," Eve retorted.

"They're both right. I would never willingly punch you, much less fight you. Not unless you surprised me," Alexa said.

"Well, there's an idea," James mused.

"If you excuse me, I'll be on my way," she said as she headed towards the door. James decided to startle her on impulse, to see how she would react.

He quickly reached out and clamped his hand roughly on her neck, like he was intending to choke her. Without warning, Alexa's body reacted quicker than her mind and she grabbed him by the wrist. James tried to pull back his arm, surprised that she even decided to fight back. She twisted his arm behind his back without a moment's notice, giving him little time to react. Alexa turned around to kick his knees out from under him and knocked him flat on his back with a sharp, downward jab to the stomach with her elbow.

Aside from a groan of pain from James, she didn't hear a word come out of anyone's mouth. The room was filled with nothing but pure silence. The world seemed to flood back into focus and her actions finally registered in her mind. Her eyes widened in surprise and she could not speak for a moment.

"Oh my god, are you alright? I'm so sorry about that," Alexa blurted out, looking utterly mortified. She helped him up and let out a sigh. "I told you not to startle me!"

"It was worth it. That was..." James said, his voice trailing off.

"That was amazing," Eve remarked.

"That was a hell of a kick. That's what it was," James said, dusting himself off.

"You're both wrong. That wasn't supposed to happen," Alexa mumbled.

"Hang on, did you really just knock James Bond flat on his back without even intending to?" Q finally said. She stared at him and back at James, her cheeks turning a distinct shade of bright red.

"I suppose. I really wasn't thinking about it. I'm sorry, Bond," Alexa said, looking embarrassed.

"It's not a problem. I've been through worse," James said. Alexa began to make her way towards the door and Eve stared at her as she went on her way.

"I cannot believe she just did that," Eve chuckled, with a shake of her head, "Who are you really, Alexa?"

"I'm Alexandra Abbott. Nothing else. I'm not...bad, I promise," she said simply. The look on her face seemed innocent enough and she had said it with such ease.

But somehow, everyone had a feeling that her statement wasn't entirely true.

"I'm off. Have fun," she said, before promptly proceeding to exit the room.

As soon as she was gone, James immediately turned to face Q. "Where did she come from?" he said.

"It didn't seem important, so I didn't really make an effort remember it. However, that was very impressive," Q remarked.

"It certainly was," James said. "Hang on, I told you to take her out to lunch but instead, you're making her work. What the hell happened to that?"

"Well, I thought fixing the security flaw was much more important than going off to lunch," Q said, sounding offended. "Besides, I've got something in mind."

"Like what?" Eve said curiously.

"Oh, it's nothing you need to worry about. Besides, I'm sure she'll like the surprise I have in mind," he said with a smirk on his face.

"Bond, new weapons are in the box. I'll see you two later," Q said as he left. Eve stared at him as he left, blinking in confusion before letting out a sigh.

"What do you think he'll do?" she asked.

"If I read that smirk of his correctly, then I think he's going to try something," James said, looking amused.

"He wouldn't do that," Eve said, looking surprised. "Unlike you, Q is not the type to willingly seduce a coworker."

"You're right. But it should be interesting to see how this turns out," James said as he reloaded his gun. "There's something about Alexa that Kate never had. If he does end up with her, maybe we can see what she really is and why she was able to knock me flat on my back like that."

"Speaking of which, I'm certain of one thing," Eve said.

"What is that?"

"Alexandra Abbott is definitely not normal," she said with a shake of her head.

And it was to their belief, that she was absolutely correct.

* * *

Alexa went back to the Q-Branch to go work on the two computers and for the remainder of the day, she updated the firmware, encrypted the hard drive, deleted any partitions, and so on. Her movements were quick and spidery, and when she was working at the computers and her fingers simply flew over the keys. However, the job required a fair deal of waiting as the computers updated and she tried her best not to look bored. She even went off to get everyone coffee, just to have an excuse to wander around and by the time she came back, the computers still had not finished. It was a lot slower process than she had anticipated and she would probably not be done until six.

Alexa remained, even after everyone else had left. She spent the rest of the time alone with Q. The only noises in the room were the sounds of the clacking of the keys on the keyboard and they didn't say a word. By the time it was six o'clock, the computers were fully updated and she could finally go home.

Alexa shut them down and put on her coat. She gathered her belongings and slung her purse over her shoulder. "I'm off. See you tomorrow," she said as she left the room.

Q, who had also finished his work, suddenly remembered what he had intended to do. He quickly shut down his laptop and took his coat off the coat rack. Q spotted her umbrella in the corner and let out a sigh, knowing that she had forgotten it again. He took it with him and headed up to the first floor.

The elevator doors opened and Q soon found Alexa standing at the main entrance. She was staring at the pouring rain and it seemed that she was attempting to decide whether or not she would make a run for the Tube station or not.

"I believe this is yours," Q said as he approached her. She turned around and upon realizing that he was holding her umbrella, let out a sigh of relief.

"My umbrella! Where did you find that?" she asked.

"You seem to forget it frequently. It's been sitting in the coat rack for a few days now," he said.

"Oh. Well, thank you," she said. Q glanced at her momentarily and looked down rather sheepishly at the ground.

"Er...are you free?" he asked. Alexa thought about it for a bit and nodded.

"Yes, I am. Why?" she said.

"Would you like to come to dinner lwith me?" Q said. Her eyes widened in surprise at his question because it was really quite unexpected to her.

"Oh! Um, I'd love to," she said, smiling slightly.

"Alright. Let's go," he said. Q opened the umbrella and the two headed out of the building together. They went down the street to a small Italian restaurant called Giuseppe's Kitchen. A waiter seated them near the window and after ordering their food, Alexa decided to ask him the question that had been on her mind this entire time.

"So, is there any particular reason why you asked me to have dinner with you?" she said.

"Do I have to provide one?" Q said.

"Not really, I guess, but I'm just curious," Alexa said. "I'm not in trouble, am I?"

"No, you're not in trouble," he said, chuckling lightly. "I did make you miss lunch today, so I felt that it would only be fair to make it up to you like this."

"Really? You know, you didn't have to. I don't mind at all," Alexa said.

"Well, I would have taken you out to lunch last Friday but you were sick. Illnesses are such nasty little inconveniences. But yours seemed fairly convenient, given what happened Friday afternoon," he said smoothly.

Alexa paused for a moment, not knowing what to say. He had seen right through her excuse and she needed to pass it off, that she was really sick. "I viewed it as more of an inconvenience but it was purely coincidental, I promise," she sad, attempting to look as honest as she could.

For Q, it was very hard to tell when she was lying but he was determined to find something that could give her away. He studied her closely and after a few moments of close observation, he realized that she was lying. Her tell was the way she would blink and look away from him, a common tell in most people. Instead of calling her out on it, he let it slip and took a sip of his drink.

"Alright. I meant to apologize for what happened last Friday, by the way. I'm sorry for saying such things," he said.

"It's fine, Q. I hope you liked the mug I bought," she said, her lips quirking up into a small smile.

"Oh, I forgot to thank you for that as well. It makes for a lovely replacement," he said, returning her smile.

"That's good. I'm glad you enjoy it," she said. Their food soon arrived, the aromatic scent of authentic italian cooking filling the air. They both ate in silence, until Q came up with a question of his own.

"I was surprised when you took down Bond with such ease. How did you do that?" he said curiously. Q watched her carefully as she attempted to formulate some sort of viable response. Her mind was scrambling to find the right words to say and finally let out a sigh of defeat.

"I know how to defend myself," she said vaguely, inwardly cringing by how lame it sounded.

"Why didn't you say anything about it earlier? I think it would have been interesting to know," he said.

"Well, the element of surprise always keeps things interesting. I thought it would be nice to reveal it later," Alexa said with a shrug.

"I see. The pugilistic arts have never been my strong point, whereas you're quite adept with it," he said.

"To be honest, I'm not always that good with everything else. I'm not left-brain oriented, so therefore I stink at drawing," she admitted with a laugh. "I can't really play an instrument or learn another language all too properly either."

"Well, it seems I'm good at what you lack," he remarked as he took a sip of his water.

"Like what?" Alexa said.

"I am quite adept with a piano and I know several different languages," Q replied.

"Don't tell me. You're good at art as well," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"I'm better than most," he said, his lips quirking up into a smirk.

"And you're intelligent too. That's just not fair," Alexa said with a shake of her head.

"Well, that's just me," he replied. "But really, how do you know how to fight? I'm just curious."

Alexa's expression darkened a bit and she twiddled with her thumbs under the table. "Er...I think it would be best to leave that it in the past. It's...not important," she said.

"Ah, you're kabbalistic about your past. That's always interesting," he said.

"...What?" Alexa asked, looking surprised.

"Kabbalistic means secretive," Q said, looking a bit puzzled. "Has no one ever described your past like that?"

"Not with that word," she said, shaking her head. "How do you even know a word as obscure as that one?"

"When I was young, my older brother told me that if I memorized every word in the K section of the dictionary, that he might consider playing with me," Q said, a small and somewhat nostalgic grin on his face.

"You didn't actually..." she said, her voice trailing off.

"Oh, I did. Naturally, I was naïve and followed his commands so now I know a good deal of words beginning with K," he said. There was an amused look on her face and she merely shook her head.

"You must come from a really...interesting family," Alexa said.

"Oh, that's speaking of them nicely," Q chuckled. "What about your family?"

Alexa immediately thought of her mother and father and she outwardly flinched at his question. "I...well, I don't have a family," she said softly. "I've been alone for the majority of my life."

"Have you really?"

"Well, I grew up in an orphanage in Dover and I never really considered them to be my family. After that, I went to Cambridge and London and in the past nine years, as terrible as it sounds, I haven't made a single friend until I arrived at the MI6," she admitted with a laugh that was twinged with sadness.

"Do you...ever get lonely?" Q said curiously. He knew that there were different types of people and some who found solace in loneliness. Q himself was of the reclusive sort who rather liked having one close circle of people he considered friends and spending his time alone with his work.

"I don't really get lonely. I've been alone for a lot of my life and I've come to realize that being alone is what protects me," she said softly.

"Protects you from what?" he asked.

"Daily drama. Meaningless chatter. Getting hurt. You know, things like that," Alexa said with a shrug. "Still, I do like interacting and socializing from time to time because it makes me feel somewhat normal."

"That seems perfectly reasonable," he said with a nod. For the remainder of dinner, they dined like friends instead of boss and employee. It was lighthearted and they were able to understand each other even better. Both of them found that they actually enjoyed each other's company. It soon came time for their little dinner to end and Q walked with her to the Tube station. They engaged in a rather engrossing debate about operating systems until the train neared Euston Square.

"Oh, this is me," she said as she stood up. Alexa swayed slightly as the train was moving and she looked at Q.

"Thank you for dinner. It was lovely," she said.

"You're welcome. I'll see you tomorrow," he said. The train was slowing to a stop and he watched her make her way towards the door. He hesitated with his next question and he tried to decide whether he should say it or not. In the end, however, he felt that it needed to be said.

"Alexa, wait," he called as she stepped out.

"Hmm?" she said as she turned to face him.

"Would you...like to do this again sometime?" Q said. He felt so uncertain by saying this and the feeling was so foreign to him.

"You don't have to, by the way," he quickly added.

Although Alexa was surprised by his question, she was not unwilling. Her lips turned up into a smile and she nodded. "I would love to," she said.

"That's...good," he said, returning her smile. Q heard the announcement from the PA and he stepped back. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye!" she said, sounding cheerful. The doors shut and Alexa watched the train go, with a odd but not uninvited feeling in her heart. She felt strangely giddy and there was a slight buzz in her veins that was unparalleled to anything she had ever felt before. What was it? Alexa was unsure of what was but in this moment, she felt as if nothing could bother her. It was a lovely and somewhat intoxicating feeling and it took her a moment to realize that for once in her life, she was truly happy. She had never realized that she, as tumultuous as her past was, could experience joy because she thought she had closed off her heart to such things. And what had she decided?

She loved it.

* * *

Well, that was quite eventful! What did you think about it? Leave me some reviews and tell me what you thought!


	8. Chapter 7

Hey guys! Here's the newest chapter. **By the way, if you skip this little spiel now, you're gonna have a bad time. So don't skip it.**

Anyway, I wanted to warn everyone now that this has the most Bondlock. Seriously, they have dialogue and everything. If you are unfamiliar with the Sherlock fandom, let me give you the quick and dirty on it:

**In this story, Sherrinford Holmes (who is Q) is the third and youngest Holmes brother. Mycroft Holmes is the eldest, being what one could call a consulting politician. Sherlock Holmes is the middle man and a consulting detective. John Watson is Sherlock Holmes' best friend and he is a former army doctor and he's pretty badass**.

But anyway, I believe that's all you need to know. I'll shut up now so you can happily be on your way :)

* * *

_Man is not what he thinks he is; he is what he hides._

_-**André Malraux**_

* * *

**_(December 10, 2012- 8:52 AM)_**

It had taken about three weeks, but Q and Alexa's relationship slowly, but surely, began to change. They spent more and more time together, frequently going out to lunch or sharing a coffee after work. Sometimes they would merely engage in regular, work-related conversations but on occasion, they would become engrossed in heated debates that could be everything from politics to Doctor Who (which, she found out, he absolutely loved). His love for the acclaimed science fiction show had given her an idea of what to give him for Christmas and she was currently working on it in her spare time.

Q found that she was quite passionate in her arguments and that she had the intelligence to back up her viewpoints. Conversely, Alexa found his extensive knowledge quite impressive and it was hard to hold her own against such an intelligent man. It was in these sorts of interactions that they quickly turned from boss to employee into close friends.

As she continued to work there, she soon found that he was probably the best boss she could imagine. He was ridiculously organized in his own little way and handled his employees with trust, but who at the same time was not afraid of being tough when the situation called for it. He was always sure of himself and was very good at making quick and precise decisions.

Today, Alexa was heading to work like she usually was. Nothing was really on her mind at the moment and she stepped off the train to get to work. As usual, it took about seven minutes for her to walk from the station and into the office. Alexa hung her coat on the rack and took off her gloves. There were only four people in the office and she found it strange that Q wasn't here. "Good morning, everyone," she said, smiling slightly.

"You seem cheerful. Did something happen?" Michael remarked.

"It did snow this morning. That may be why I'm so cheerful," she said.

"I hate the snow," Joy said with a shudder. "It's the one thing I can never get used to in my years of living here."

"Snow is lovely. It reminds me of my old home," Alexa interjected.

"I agree. You know, winters are great in Ireland. It gives us an excuse to sit in front of the fireplace and avoid the outdoors," William said.

"Well, tobogganing whilst intoxicated is quite fun too," Ryan remarked.

"Wait, what?" Alexa said, looking amused.

"Yeah, we used to do it every Christmas Eve until we came here. Granddad would even come, if his knees weren't bugging him," he replied.

"And how old is your grandfather?" Alexa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Seventy-four. But don't let his age fool you. He's a feisty little bastard," Ryan chuckled.

"That's madness," Alexa said, shaking her head. She looked around for a moment and glanced at the door. "Where's Q?" she asked.

"He's up in M's office. We don't know what happened but we should know fairly soon," Joy said.

"Oh dear. He never usually goes in there. Is it bad?" Alexa whispered as she leaned forward.

"It might be. Just be prepared to deal with him if it is bad," she replied. Alexa nodded and looked back at the papers on her desk. She began her morning by decrypting the files on several hard drives and also began developing a new weapon design.

She also headed to the break room after a half hour and fixed up a cup of tea for Q. Alexa wasn't sure how his talk with M would go but she figured she might as well make some for him anyway. Instead of adding some cream, she put a little bit of milk in the mug and let it mix with the Earl Grey tea. It was really quite a strange mixture but she knew that Q liked his tea that way. To be honest, she really didn't know why she knew that but decided it wasn't an irrelevant fact that she could forget. She merely set the cup on his desk and decided to wait and see what he would deal with today.

* * *

Q currently sat in M's office, waiting impatiently. There was a scowl on his face and he certainly didn't look pleased with being there. He glanced over at his eldest brother, Mycroft, who was currently texting on his phone. The room was silent and M could practically see how strange it was to have two Holmes brothers in the room. But that wasn't all of them, and that was the most frightening thing about it.

The door opened suddenly and Sherlock walked in, with a shorter man following him. "What is it this time, M?" he said as he went towards his desk.

"Take a seat, Sherlock. We have a case for you to work on," M said. Sherlock reluctantly sat down and he glanced over at Q and Mycroft (who, by the way, was still texting someone). Q shared a look with his older brother and let out a sigh.

"M, are you sure it's advisable to have all three of us here?" Q said.

"It probably isn't, but I don't have a choice," he replied.

"Hang on, what is going on here?" the shorter man blurted out.

"Who's your friend?" Q said as he looked back at him.

"I'm John Watson. I'm his friend," he explained.

"Ah, I know who you are. Captain Watson, of the fifth Northumberland Fusiliers. It seems like you'll be capable for this job after all. You may call me M," M said as he shook hands with him.

"Wait, what job-" John began.

"Yes, now that we're through with introductions, can we get on with it?" Mycroft interrupted.

"I was performing an experiment when your men ever so rudely pulled me out of the house and dragged me here. Now, what is this all about?" Sherlock said.

"006, it is your obligation to report to duty when needed," M argued.

"H-hang on, did you just-" John stammered. He looked at Sherlock in disbelief and then at Mycroft and Q. "What is happening here?" he demanded.

"Mycroft and I are both former MI6 agents, 005 and 006," Sherlock sighed.

"So, you're in league with men like James Bond? Why didn't you mention this earlier?" John blurted out. He couldn't believe that his best friend had worked with legendary spies like James Bond and it was a little startling (if not, unsettling).

"I don't just march about, telling people I'm an MI6 agent, John," Sherlock muttered.

"Would have been nice to know," he grumbled as he sat down on the chair. John glanced at Q, who sat next to him, with curiosity. "Who are you?" he said.

"Call me Q. I'm Sherlock's younger brother," he said.

Despite his initial shock, John let out a small chuckle. "And just when I though two of you was bad enough. Nice to meet you," he said, giving a slight smile to the youngest Holmes.

"Trust me, I'm far more bearable than these two maniacs," Q snorted.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you're not as bad as the other two," John shrugged.

"Don't listen to him, John. Quit being a prat, Sherrinford," Mycroft said, without looking up.

Q merely nodded at John and continued to argue with Mycroft. "Well, don't be a goody-two-shoes, Mycroft. You're just mad because mother likes me better," he said almost childishly.

"That's preposterous. I am her firstborn, so therefore, I get all of her love," Mycroft said stubbornly.

"Really? That's a load of rubbish. She only puts up with you every time you rush up to her with an achievement of yours. 'Mummy, look what I did!'" Q said mockingly.

"He does present several good points of argument," Sherlock pointed out.

"This is hardly a fair argument. It's two against one-" Mycroft protested.

"Alright boys, I'm assuming there is something important to be done," John said, rolling his eyes.

"I agree with John. As much as I enjoy watching a Holmes family reunion, there are things we need to take care of. All of you, shut up!" M said. The room finally went silent but Mycroft and Q still seemed to be glaring at each other. M stared at them for a moment and let out a heavy sigh.

"Honestly, I don't know how Violet deals with you three. Patience of a saint, if I ever saw one," he muttered as he pressed his fingers to his temples.

"That's lovely and all but can you tell us why we're all here? I'd actually like to get back to work," Q said impatiently.

"I was getting to that, Q. Anyway, all of you are here because we have a problem that needs to be dealt with. Two days ago, Mycroft informed me that a man named Thomas Maxwell was assassinated. Aside from being a prominent political figure, he was also 003 and was in the running for Prime Minister," M said.

"And why does this concern me?" Sherlock said, raising an eyebrow.

"Thomas Maxwell wasn't dealing with England selectively. It is rumoured that he had dealings with a weapons trafficking ring in (ironically) Switzerland. I need you and your friend to head to Berne in three days to determine who killed him and who the head of the ring is so we can send one of our agents to bust him," M said.

"Before you say anything or go anywhere, I have specific jobs for each of you. Q, I would like you to examine Maxwell's phone. See if he received any threatening texts and track them if he did. Also, I need the Q-Branch to provide them with some weapons. When can you get them?" M asked.

"We have some new things developed that they can take with them today," Q replied.

"Excellent. Sherlock and John, you can both head down there after this is done. Mycroft, I would like you to handle the more public side of this and convey his death as an accident, so as to avoid any negative political implications. We don't want the Swiss on our bad side. Sherlock and John, go down with Q," he commanded.

"Alright. Come along, John," Sherlock said as he stood up. All four men headed out of the office and Mycroft looked at them.

"I'll be heading back to the office. Do be careful in Switzerland, you two," he said as he shook hands with both of them. He glanced at Q and nodded at him. "It's been lovely to see you, Q," he said.

"Take care, Mycroft," Q said, at least attempting to be civil. He watched his brother head off and Q went down the hallway with Sherlock and John in tow.

"I hate talking with him. It's terribly awkward," he muttered as he ambled down the stone steps.

"That make two of us," Sherlock agreed. The trio rounded the corner and walked into the Q-Branch, where they were all surprised when they saw a brown haired woman tossing a knife in their general direction. It didn't hit anyone, but stuck itself firmly into the bulls-eye paper on the cork board next to Q.

"Alexa, what the hell was that?" Q said, sounding surprised. His gaze went from the oddly shaped knife then back to her.

"There you are. I made pen-knives while you were gone," she said cheerfully.

"That's a saying, isn't it? The pen is mightier than the sword. You just took a more literal take on it," he chuckled.

"Exactly. I wondered what would happen when the pen and the sword were the same thing, so hence this idea came to fruition," Alexa said.

"What are they like?" Q said as he and the three men walked past her.

"Well, they fly straighter than the normal sort and are a bit lighter. On top of that, they look like pens," she said nonchalantly as she threw two more that hit in the same area.

"Just...be careful. You could have hit me," Q grumbled as he walked back to his desk.

"Actually, you're quite safe. She never seems to miss, unless she does it on purpose," George called as he looked up from the computer he was dismantling.

"Exactly! You're perfectly safe, considering how my knife throwing results came out," Alexa said as she laid the target paper on his desk. She had not missed the centre circle even once and Q glanced at the paper with a rather thoughtful look on his face.

"Well, that's unexpected. You never seem to fail to surprise me," he said, shaking his head.

"I consider that to be a good thing. It would be far too dull if I didn't," Alexa said as she laid out her knives on the table and sat down.

"Thank you for the tea, by the way," he said as he typed in his computer password.

"Anyone could have made it," she pointed out. "Why say me?"

"I know you made it because you did it just the way I like it. I must have mentioned it to you a while ago. George and Joy add sugar and Michael substitutes milk with creamer," Q said.

"What about William and Ryan?" Alexa asked. There was a collective roar of laughter that filled the room that only served to confuse Alexa.

"I have banned those two from ever making me tea. The last time they did it, they spiked it with whiskey. Quite a bit, too," he said. There was a look of surprise on Alexa's face and she smirked a little.

"How did that turn out?" she asked.

"Well, that was a terrible day," Q said with a shake of his head.

"I disagree completely. That was an excellent day," William said with a smirk.

"I had a presentation to give!" he protested.

"In fairness, I think you did alright. No one could tell that you were slightly drunk," Michael said.

"Not until he nearly fell off the stage," Ryan said under his breath. This caused the whole room to burst into laughter once more and Q shook his head.

"We don't talk about that incident, alright everyone?" Q said firmly.

"Alright," Alexa said, smiling lightly. She sat back down at her desk and Joy happened to glance back at her. The woman took notice of the two men standing rather awkwardly near the door.

"Q, did we get new agents?" Joy said.

"Oh, I nearly forgot about them. Everyone, this is Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. Sherlock Holmes was 006, so I'd like you all to get familiar with him. Dr. Watson is his friend and fellow conspirator, so he'll be here frequently as well," he said as he motioned to the two men. Q went back towards them and led them to each person, introducing them to his team. It was fair to say that Sherlock seemed bored, but John attempted to keep him from showing it. Q soon got to where Alexa was sitting and she stood up to greet them.

"I'm Alexandra Abbott. It's nice to meet you," she said as she gave each of them a firm handshake. Sherlock studied her carefully without saying a word and when she shook hands with John, he finally spoke.

"You're certainly an odd one."

Alexa turned slightly and looked at him. "Sorry, what?" she said, looking puzzled.

"Everything about you is strange. There is a very faint accent in your voice. It's hardly what one calls noticeable but I presume that it is Eastern European to some degree. I see that you have-" Sherlock began. Q interrupted him with an annoyed groan and shook his head.

"Sherlock, shut up. Nobody wants to hear it," he said.

"But look at her! She's like a gold mine for deductions. I can't possibly just ignore all of it," Sherlock argued. Alexa stared at the man in confusion and John patted her on the shoulder reassuringly.

"He's been sitting idly in the flat for weeks now and he's been dying to show off. Just ignore him," John said.

"Well, I'll try," Alexa said, looking bewildered. Sherlock pointedly ignored Q and continued his deductions.

"As I was saying, you possess several scars on your arms that have faded to be barely noticeable over time, but don't seem to be caused by self harm. You carry yourself in a careful and wary manner, like you were told never to trust anyone for too long," he said.

"And what might that imply, Mr. Holmes?" Alexa said carefully. She knew that he was undeniably clever (given what she had seen in the news) and that she was treading on dangerous grounds. He could reveal her true identity, if she didn't respond correctly.

"You're a former soldier of Eastern European descent," he said. Alexa was both impressed and appalled that he could tell so quickly but she kept her composure.

"Wrong," Alexa said simply.

"Come again?" Sherlock said.

"I'm not a soldier," she said smoothly. Her tone was confident and she seemed to be utterly satisfied with her answer. However, he knew that she was lying by the way she blinked and shifted her gaze. He could not figure out why and decided not to say anything, merely nodding in response.

"What about your race? Did I get that right?" he said.

"I wouldn't know. I'm an orphan from Dover," Alexa shrugged. At this point, Q wanted to get on with it and glared at his older brother.

"Sherlock, stop harassing Alexa. Come on, I have things to show you," he said as he led him along.

Sherlock followed Q wordlessly but looked back at Alexa with a wary gleam in his eye. He was generally indifferent to Mycroft but when it came to Q, he found that he had a soft spot for his youngest brother. Sherlock could tell from the start that Q and Alexa had something different brewing between them and he decided to find out more about this girl, to see what Q was getting himself into. He just didn't want him to get involved with a potentially dangerous woman who most likely break his heart.

"-herlock, did you just hear anything Q said?" John said, interrupting his current train of thought. The dark haired man blinked and returned his gaze to Q.

"No," he said bluntly.

"Would it kill you to listen?" Q said, looking annoyed.

"Fine, go on with it," he sighed.

"Alright. This gun will be activated by your palm print. Whatever you do, don't lose it," Q warned.

"What happens if I do?" Sherlock asked.

"You would owe me about £700. These guns are very expensive to manufacture," he grumbled.

"Fine, I can give it back. Are there any files I need to see?" he asked.

"I've already loaded them onto this jump drive. The records department are constructing a new identity file for both of you, but they have yet to make it because they keep sending your photographic credentials as a gif file," Q said, looking annoyed. Sherlock merely nodded and took the weapons for both of them when he heard the sharp squeak of a chair turning around.

"Say that again," Alexa said as she looked over at Q.

"What?" he replied, looking startled.

"What file extension does the records department keep sending it as?" she asked.

"A gif file," Q replied. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"Wait, isn't it pronounced with a J, like that American peanut butter brand, Jif? The word gin is pronounced like that too," Alexa said.

"No, it's pronounced with a G. It stands for Graphic Interchange Format," he replied.

"I've never heard it said like that," Alexa stated.

"I'm fairly certain it's gif, not jif," Q argued.

"Everyone says it as jif," she retorted.

"That can't be true! Has anyone here actually pronounce it like that besides Alexa?" he said.

"My professor in uni always said it was jif," Michael said with a shrug.

"No, I thought it was gif. That's what I called it when I lived in Tokyo," Joy said.

"Maybe it depends on where you're from," George said thoughtfully.

"This is completely ridiculous. It's obvious that it's with a G," Sherlock muttered, with a roll of his eyes. John did not reply and in about a minute or two, his eyes lit up.

"Actually, the real pronunciation is with a J. The creator of the gif, Steven Wilhite said so," John said

"I told you!" Alexa said triumphantly. Both Q and Sherlock looked surprised, seeing that they were both on the wrong side.

"You're not serious, are you?" Q said.

"I remember reading about this while I was blogging," John shrugged. "The verdict is that the word gif is said with a j."

"Well, I refuse to say it as such. I'll call it a jif when I'm dead," Q said indignantly.

"Is that all, Q?" Sherlock interrupted, attempting to get back on topic.

"Oh, right. Yes, this is it. I've given you what you need, so do be careful in Switzerland. I would hate to have to plan a funeral upon your return. Mycroft would be very displeased," he said as he took a sip of his now-cold tea.

"We'll be fine. Come along, John," he said as he turned on his heel to leave. John said a quick goodbye to the Q-Branch and left Q and everyone else in silence.

"What a strange pair those two are! I quite like them. Both seem fairly normal," Joy said, smiling slightly.

"Oh, they're far from that," Q said sagely.

And knowing who they were, he was almost 101% sure that he was utterly correct.

* * *

Later that day, Alexa sat with Q at the Café du Nord. Eve had gone to lunch with James and Joy was back at the Q-Branch, working on decrypting a new document. That left her to have lunch with Q, which had now become a semi-regular event. Their lunch was now dwindling to a close and she sat with him now, in a table at the edge of the café.

"So, is 006 related to you?" Alexa said as he took a sip of her remaining coffee.

"He is. Sherlock is my older brother. You didn't meet him, but my eldest brother Mycroft was here too," Q replied.

"Mycroft? Wasn't he 005?" she said.

"Yes, but both of my brothers left the MI6 a while ago. Sherlock's a consulting detective. Mycroft, on the other hand, is a...politician, of sorts," he replied.

"Ah, I see. You know, you and Sherlock look a lot alike. The resemblance is uncanny," she said with a nod. Alexa studied him and she leaned back in her chair, with her brows furrowing slightly. "Your brothers both have really odd names. What about you?"

"I won't say it," he said stubbornly.

"Why not?"

"I hate it. I honestly have no idea where it came from or what my mother was even thinking when she chose that name," Q grumbled.

"Is it...Stephen?" Alexa said.

"You're on the correct letter. Keep guessing," Q said, looking amused.

"Samuel."

"Wrong," he replied.

"Simon?" Alexa said hesitantly.

"Nope," Q said.

"Aha! I bet it's Sebastian," she said, looking pleased with herself.

"That's not even close," he said. Her face fell and she frowned almost childishly, before taking a sip of her coffee once more.

"Damn, I thought I had it then," she muttered. "I give up. What is it?"

"Like I said, I won't tell you," Q chuckled.

"Fine, I'll go find out myself," Alexa said.

"Oh, don't go poking around my past like that. You won't find anything interesting anyway. You, on the other hand..." he began, looking quite thoughtful.

Alexa saw the gleam in his eye that told her that it was his turn to interrogate her and she decided that she didn't feel like divulging such information today. Alexa decided to divert his attention away from her past and to a different subject.

"I don't mean to pry, but does Sherlock always do that?" Alexa asked.

"Do what?" Q replied as he stood up. They both set some money on the table and exited the cafe, before heading down the street. The rain poured down on the streets of London, so he shared an umbrella with Alexa like the chivalrous gentleman he was raised to be.

"He says everything about you in one go, like he knows everything about you," she said.

"Oh, yeah. He does that all the time. It's really quite annoying," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"What about you? Can you do that too?" Alexa said curiously.

"Well, to some degree, I suppose. I'm not like him, who bases his entire career on such an ability. I chose not to be as adept because I saw how annoying it was from both of my brothers and I didn't want to unleash that hell on the rest of the world," he replied.

"Well, that's quite considerate. It must get annoying fairly quickly," she said.

"It does. However, I have been dying to deduce you for quite a while now," Q said as he looked at her again.

"May I?" he said. Alexa wondered if this was a good idea, but he didn't seem like he was going to relent. She merely sighed and gave him a nod.

"Go ahead. Tell me what you think of me," Alexa said with a shrug as she continued to walk.

"You're have a good work ethic. You never seem to do anything by halves. You're a bit withdrawn, a person who doesn't usually encourage friendship. You don't want anyone interfering with your life. Your appearances indicate that you are of Russian nationality, given by the slight retroussé of your nose and your rather Byzantine features. Furthermore, you have a very faint accent in your voice. You tend to roll your r's whenever you get really passionate or angry about something, which is most prevalent in Russian languages," he said.

"However, what I find interesting is that you even have such characteristics today, since you grew up as an orphan in Dover. Looking like a Russian is one thing since there is always the possibility that your parents were biologically Russian, but if you really did grow up in Dover, you would have no traces of a Russian accent," he said.

"You have a point," she said softly.

"So, what are you really?" he said.

"I'm Alexa Abbott," she replied smartly.

"Oh, come on. There has to be more to you. I never an explanation for everything I just unearthed," Q grumbled.

"Well, to answer your question, I started learning Russian when I was young. I went to a school that set us under a curriculum where we would learn a secondary language besides English. We took a test to see which would fit us best and naturally, I was sent off to learn Russian. That's why I have a bit of an accent," she lied. Alexa glanced down to grab her key card, effectively avoiding his gaze.

"Ah, I see," he murmured. He wondered if she was telling the truth, but had the niggling feeling that she was saying otherwise. Q scanned his key card to get in and the two went down the hallways of the MI6 base, saying nothing more about the topic. However, there was only one thing that he was at least sure that was true.

Alexa Abbott was not who she said she was and he would stop at nothing to find the truth.

* * *

A drunk Q. Dear god, can you imagine that? Anyway, both of the Holmes brothers have deduced her now! I hope you liked all the Bondlock and I hope it wasn't odd. What do you reckon will happen next? Leave me a comment and let me know!


	9. Chapter 8

Hey all :) Thank you for all the favorites and follows! I wasn't expecting to get that many in one chapter so that's always a good thing. I appreciate your continued support and I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!

* * *

_Love does not begin the way we think it does._

-**_James A. Baldwin_**

* * *

Twelve days had gone by and the events in Switzerland (now nicknamed the Maxwell Affair) had come to pass. Sherlock had busted the weapons dealing ring and it had turned out that 003 had bargained with more countries other than Switzerland. He had connections with Germany, The USA, Iran, and Russia. Thomas Maxwell had given them sensitive MI6 information in the form of an external hard drive, in order to secure their allegiances in the event of a world crisis.

The nature of the information that he relayed was not entirely clear; there were a fair amount of things said and transferred, so it was hard to keep track of everything that had been revealed. However, it was to everyone's understanding that it could be potentially consequential and to keep a sharp lookout for any complications that might arise from it. Nevertheless, the matter was quickly resolved and with the help of Dr. Watson, the two were able to imprison the weapons dealers in Switzerland and recovered the stolen drive. With that, the Maxwell Affair soon winded down to a close and most assumed that was the end of it. However, a cloud of doubt still remained, as if it were a prelude some unforeseen calamity.

Back in London, several people had other things on their minds. Christmas was in only three days, which meant that the annual MI6 Holiday Celebration was approaching. It was not your typical run-of-the-mill office party; the whole affair was rather extravagant in nature and was typically held in the esteemed Dorcaster Ballroom in the Dorcaster Hotel. It was quite an elegant affair and also what Joy and Eve believed to be the perfect place to get Alexa and Q together. They both figured that it was a lovely situation for both of them, but the trouble was getting any of it set up. In fact, they were unsure if the two could be a couple or if they were set on remaining close friends.

Although it had only been a few months since her hiring, Alexa had come to fully appreciate all of Q's strange and somewhat fascinating quirks. She thought he was genuinely funny, with a rather ironic sense of humor, and in turn, he thought she was witty (if not, borderline sarcastic). As she spent more time with him, she found that she felt differently now. Every time she saw him, the most curious feeling would arise in her and she found that her heart beat a little quicker whenever she saw him. It was an unfamiliar sensation, but it wasn't unwelcome. The feeling bewildered Alexa to some extent and she soon began to wonder- could this be what love really felt like?

She would not deny that she was attracted to him. What was there not to like? He was undeniably handsome, not to mention the fact that he was quite funny and really nice as well. However, what she loved about him most was the fact that he would stop at nothing to make sure that everything was alright. If Q saw something wrong, he would state it outright in a simple and respectful manner. If conflict was occurring, Q would immediately correct it, whilst making sure that both parties were treated equally. The way that he could fix things like that was an admirable trait, if not, one that she lacked.

The fact that he was her boss was not the thing that was holding her back now. It was really that small ounce of fear she possessed, that he would think of her differently if he found out about her past. In the event that something did happen and the Division found her, she didn't want Q to be harmed in any way. The last thing she wanted was for him to get hurt on her behalf, so she tried to stamp out and ignore her growing attachment to him.

It was not only Alexa who began feeling this way. Q did not know it, but he was slowly falling in love with her as well. He didn't think about his feelings for her very often but there were moments of clarity where he would feel his heart beat erratically, like when she would wear something nice to work or whenever she would laugh or smile. Her looks and charm would undoubtedly bring no end of misery to him, if he wasn't careful.

He always noticed her little quirks as well, like the fact that she came in at 8:59 every morning and how she always tended to forget her umbrella. He would also frequently observe her, to see what made her so different. Q had delved into her past a little further and was able to put together several ideas. The information he found was honestly rather alarming, because Sherlock's deduction had a 62% chance of being correct (which was quite higher than it should have been). There was a considerable amount of evidence that he had missed before and her past seemed so well-constructed to the point where just didn't seem right to him. However, he soon put his efforts aside when he realized that he didn't know what to expect and if she would like it if he knew about it.

Q was also unsure if he noticed too much, but he found that he liked it when her lips would twist up almost demurely at the corners whenever she smiled. Her eyes shone with a natural, continuous impression of curiosity, like she was always watching carefully. Underneath her polite and quiet exterior was a sort of passion that was unparalleled to anything else. Q would not come to realize his true emotions until that fateful day when his family decided to become involved in his love life.

* * *

**_(December 22, 2012- 6:52 PM)_**

A black car drove up a cobblestone driveway, that led to a grand and elegant home with a well-trimmed lawn that was blanketed in snow. The vehicle soon stopped and Q stepped out of his car and shut the door. He looked back at the vehicle and sighed. It took too much effort and money to get here, considering that the price of gasoline was almost £3 per liter. He barely used this car in the first place, except when he came to Petersfield for the sporadic Saturday get-togethers his mother loved to arrange. But then again, he realized that he would have to put up with it, lest he fly out here. That was a more expensive option, not to mention unpleasant (given his fear of planes).

"I could have ridden with Sherlock," he grumbled as he walked up to the marble steps. Q waited at the front door of the Holmes Manor before the door was answered by his mother, Violet Holmes.

Violet Holmes (née Rousseau) had been the daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur in France and she had gone to college for business and management. Violet became one of the old M's assistants before she met their currently deceased father, Siger Holmes, and quit to be married. However, she still kept her ties to the MI6 active and was also a longtime friend of Gareth Mallory.

She was a rather frail looking woman, but that was the extent of her fragility. Violet Holmes could only compare to a lioness, fiercely protecting her three children (despite the fact that they had all grown up now). She had long chestnut brown hair and it would always be styled in an elegant bun. Violet had sharp, blue eyes that always seemed to be watching your every move and she looked like an intimidating figure. In reality, she was quite a pleasant woman who worried about her children far too much than an average mother would.

"Sherrinford! It's nice to see you. You've grown taller, love," she said as she wrapped her arms around her son.

"Hello, mum. I go by Q now," he pointed out as he gave his mother a hug.

"I heard all about that. It's a lovely position and I'm so proud of you. I'm sure that your father would be too," she said as she ushered him inside.

"Where's Mycroft and Sherlock?" he said.

"Mycroft is in the dining room. Sherlock will probably be late, once again," she said with a sigh.

"He's always late," Q scoffed. "By the way, have you taken any of the books out of my room?"

"I don't go into your room. I know how you are. I wouldn't want to mess up the order of it," Violet said.

"I'll be there for a bit. There's a few things I need I grab. Call me when Sherlock gets here," he said as he climbed up the stairs.

In reality, Q really didn't need anything. He just didn't want to wait in a room with Mycroft for thirty minutes because it was terribly awkward. They had never really seen eye to eye, since he was considerably older than him. The only time Mycroft and Q interacted with each other was when Mycroft called him in to hack something. Therefore, it always a bit strange when he talked to him. They had different sort of ideals in mind so they weren't exactly on the same page.

Q went into his room and he smirked, at realizing that his mother was correct. The room was the exact same as when he had left for university. There was a microscope that sat long unused at the table and his bookshelf was filled with different books on Javascript, Programming, and other computer related subjects. He opened the closet to find a server box full of different coloured wires. It was rather nice to know that nobody touched his things and he ambled around the room, pretending to look for something.

It took almost ten minutes, but he finally heard the bell ring downstairs. Q let out a sigh of relief and grabbed two books about computational theory before nearly tripping over a small box on the foot of his bed. He opened it up to find several articles about his success in university and he noticed several medals hanging on the wall that he had won while he was there. Q flipped through the contents of the box and found himself smiling, at knowing that his mother had kept all of this. He found a large leather book in the box and he opened it to find a yearbook, of sorts. There were no individual photographs of the students; there were photos of student organizations and their various endeavors. He flipped through the faded pages and stopped when he saw photos of his graduation in the papers.

Q saw photographs of his younger self giving a speech and there was a faded paper with a copy of his summa cum laude acceptance speech. He saw only one photograph of Alexa in the entire 100 page book, and it was when she had accepted her diploma. In the picture, she still looked the way she did today and he was unable to find much else about her.

Q put the book back in the box and headed downstairs, where he met both of his brothers and his mother in the dining room.

"Ah, there you are. Take a seat, love," Violet said as she sat down at her own chair. She looked at all three of her sons as they sat at the table with a hint of pride in her eyes and began their dinner.

They made small conversation over a plate of seasoned pork that was cooked to perfection. Violet made an effort to keep all of her sons in good spirits tonight, since their dinners usually ended in someone arguing with someone. After they finished dinner, the four of them sat in front of the fireplace at the sitting room, where they talked about the various happenings in their lives.

"Is there anything interesting happening with your work, Sherrinford? Or do you go by Q now?" she asked.

"Either works, mum," he shrugged. "Nothing much had been taking place."

"Well, aside from the fact that you seem to be quite attached to that coworker of yours," Sherlock said, smirking slightly.

"Which one?" Q said as he looked up at his older brother.

"Miss Abbott, the one I deduced. I saw her when I came by," Sherlock said. "I mentioned her to Mycroft as well."

"You know, both of us have been watching your interactions with her ever since," Mycroft said thoughtfully as he took a sip of his wine.

"Ooh, a girl? What's this one like?" Violet said curiously. She had never really thought that Q was cut out for love and was surprised to hear him spending time with anyone, much less someone of the opposite gender. To be honest, she had suspected him of being gay before she heard about his first girlfriend but she had never stated it outright.

"It's nothing," Q mumbled as he looked at the dancing flames in the fireplace.

"Who is she? Is she nice?" she persisted.

"Her name is Alexa. She's...well, she is an interesting individual. Alexa is nice and a bit shy, unless you actually speak to her. She's quite intelligent and unlike some people, she understands what I'm saying when I talk with her about technology," Q said.

"How charming. He's finally found a woman whom he can speak geek to," Sherlock said with a smirk.

"Go on, love. Tell me more about this Alexa," Violet said impatiently, wanting to hear about her youngest son's current love life.

"She's...undeniably curious about a lot of things and although she is quiet, that doesn't mean that she doesn't have a backbone. She's strong, both emotionally and physically," he replied.

"What else have you learned about her?" she said.

"Alexa seems to have many different sides to her and quite frankly, it's interesting to see her reveal each of them. She's rather secretive and I'm beginning to wonder if I should find out what she could be hiding," Q said.

"Ah, the enigmatic type. Well, what does she look like? Is she pretty?" Violet asked.

"I can't deny the fact that she is quite lovely," he replied, nodding thoughtfully. Q had never acknowledged that thought out loud and found it surprisingly easy to state that he did find her pretty.

"Oh, have you taken her out on a date yet? Maybe you can ask her to that Christmas party that's-" his mother began.

"I am not taking her out on a date. I am her boss and she is both my friend and co-worker," Q stated firmly.

"Asking her out on a date and asking her to accompany you to a party are two different things," Mycroft interjected.

"I'm not entirely sure if that would give off the correct signals," he replied.

"I accompanied my assistant to a political soirée once and no one thought anything of it," Mycroft said.

"Well, this is a different scenario. I've seen how he is around her. You're interested in this one, aren't you?" Sherlock said.

"No. Don't be silly, Sherlock. I have no romantic feelings for her whatsoever," Q said defensively. He glared at his brother almost childishly and shook his head defiantly.

"You're being quite defensive, for a man who claims to have no romantic feelings for her. It's a bit amusing to see you in denial like this, really," Sherlock smirked.

"That is a ridiculous and false notion," he said stubbornly.

"Like I said, your denial is quite simply adorable," he teased. Q merely rolled his eyes and fiddled with the edge of his shirt, ignoring both of them for the time being.

"Be entirely honest with yourself," Mycroft said. "What exactly does that woman mean to you?"

"I..." he said, with a moment of hesitation. It occurred to him that he found Alexa to be truly lovely but he was unsure of how to feel. She was his friend and he was her boss as well. He didn't want her to turn out like his former girlfriend had. However, he did feel some sort of attraction to her but he didn't know if he would even take action on such a thing.

"We're just good friends," he said firmly, attempting to make himself believe that this was the truth.

"Well, ask her out anyway. I'm sure you've done it before, haven't you?" Sherlock said.

"I have asked her to have dinner with me before. But this isn't the same," he argued.

"It isn't, but just give it a chance. I know that what happened with Kate was...well, hard for you to deal with but that shouldn't keep you from trying again," Violet said. She wanted nothing more than to see her son happy and if this Alexa could ensure his joy, then she didn't see why he should hesitate.

With these words, Sherlock and Mycroft were sure that Q had fallen for their mother's tactic hook, line, and sinker. They both knew that Q hated seeing their mother worry over him and the concern in her eyes only fueled the cause even further. He stood up and put on his coat, before fishing his car keys out of his pocket.

"I'll try but I doubt she'd agree to it," he said. Q gave his mother a hug and said goodbye to both of his brothers, before taking his books and leaving the house.

Violet watched her son's car leave the driveway and turned back to face Mycroft and Sherlock. "Tell me, what's this girl like? Is there are chance that things could end badly with this one?" she said worriedly.

"We've both been keeping tabs on her. She's quite strange," Sherlock remarked.

"How so?" Violet said, looking alarmed.

"There's just something about her that isn't right. I've looked at her files and I'm almost a hundred percent sure that her past is forged. It's well-fabricated, if not, to an extreme extent. Everything that dates back to her childhood eventually leads to an untraceable lead or a dead end," Mycroft said.

"A dead end?" she echoed blankly.

"Simply put, mum, she's a ghost. If you take away this current identity of hers, you won't find anything. She doesn't appear in any other databases in any government across the globe," he said.

"Oh dear. Did I make a mistake in getting him involved with her?" she fretted as she wrung her hands in her lap nervously.

"Well, we haven't figured out why she's hiding her true identity but we'll find out soon. For now, he should be perfectly fine," Sherlock said casually. Mycroft gave him a hesitant glance, because he had heard what Sherlock had deduced out of Alexa. He responded back with a pointed stare that told him to stay quiet and thus, the politician was silenced.

"Alright, if you say so. I'll meet her on Monday anyway, so I can make my own judgements there," she sighed. "I'm so glad you two care for your little brother. I worry about him quite a bit."

"We wouldn't have it any other way," Mycroft said, smirking slightly.

* * *

**_(December 23, 2013- 10:14 AM)_**

The shrill ring of the doorbell broke the silence that had settled in Alexa's flat and she let out a groan. She never woke up earlier than eleven o'clock on the weekends and today was no exception. The doorbell kept ringing and eventually, she rolled over to check the time and ended up falling out of bed, laying on the floor in a heap of blankets. Alexa yawned and stood up, ran a hand through her unruly hair in an attempt to make it a bit neater, and replaced her tank top with a gray long sleeve shirt. She quickly brushed her teeth and snuck a look in the mirror, to see how she looked. After deciding that it was perfectly acceptable to answer the door in her plaid pyjama pants, she headed downstairs. Alexa rubbed her eyes blearily and opened the door.

"Can I help you?" she said as she let out a yawn.

"Morning, Alexa," Q said as he glanced at her curiously. The sound of his voice seemed to fully wake her up and she stared at him.

"Oh! Er, good morning to you as well," she said, looking embarrassed. "

"Did I wake you? Sorry about that," he said.

"It's alright," she shrugged. Alexa studied him for a moment and stepped aside.

"Would you like to come in?" she asked. "I'll make some tea or something."

"No, it's fine. I was just dropping by to...ask you something," Q said, looking sheepish.

"Oh? What would that be?" Alexa said curiously.

"Well, it's about that holiday thing tomorrow and I was wondering if you, erm...happened to be going with anyone," he said, shuffling his feet awkwardly.

"Oh, I'm not going with anyone. No one's asked me about it," she shrugged.

"Would you like to go with me?" Q asked hesitantly. Alexa looked surprised and she found that she didn't exactly know what to say.

"I mean, you don't have to. Feel free to say no. I won't be offended at all," he said hastily. It began to sink in that he had really asked her this and she found herself smiling in response.

"I would love to," Alexa said.

"You...would?" Q asked, looking positively surprised.

"Yes. I think it would be lovely," she replied.

"Really? Hmm, I honestly thought you would say no," he chuckled.

"Well, for once you're wrong. I would love to go with you," she said, giving him that smile of hers that always made his heart beat a little quicker than it should. He reminded himself that they were just friends and quickly shook off thoughts of anything else.

"That's good. I'll come by at seven tomorrow, then," he said.

"Yeah, sounds good," Alexa said, sounding a bit more cheerful than before.

"Alright. I'll see you then," he said as he went off. Q waved goodbye and she shut the door, feeling quite cheerful. Her spirits were momentarily dampened when she realized that she didn't have anything to wear. Alexa honestly hadn't even planned on going, since she didn't have anyone to go with. Although the action was somewhat juvenile, Alexa decided to call Joy and Eve to see if they could help her out since she always had a hard time picking out dresses.

Alexa called both women and they decided to meet at Mayfair Street later at eleven. She ate a rather unimpressive breakfast of bagels and coffee, before heading up to her bedroom to put on a white sweater, a pair of jeans, and a pair of boots. Alexa grabbed her purse and made her way to the Tube stop.

She took the train to Mayfair Street and met Joy and Eve at a café. Alexa waved at the two women and the three congregated on the sidewalk in front of the café.

"Morning," Alexa said.

"Hi," Joy said. "So, what's up?"

"Yeah, you weren't exactly clear on why we're here when you called this morning," Eve said accusingly.

"Well, I need your help. I need to pick out a dress for that party tomorrow," Alexa confessed.

"I thought you didn't want to go," Joy said, looking puzzled.

"Well, I wasn't going to go because nobody asked me. But then, Q came to my doorstep this morning and asked me if I could accompany him to the party,"Alexa said. Both women instantly exchanged rather devious looks and Alexa stared at them suspiciously.

"What was that look for?" she said warily.

"Nothing, nothing. We'll make sure that you look pretty," Eve said reassuringly. A smile lit up Alexa's face and she looked both relieved and joyful.

"Thank god. I suck at picking dresses," Alexa sighed.

"Hang on, did he say this was a date?" Joy said.

"Er, no. He didn't really specify, but I wouldn't think of it like that," she replied as they walked down the street.

"By the time we're done with you, he'll wish that he would have taken you out on a date before," Eve said. Alexa rolled her eyes and thus, the women began their search.

They went in and out of Mayfair Street's designer boutiques for the majority of the day, walking out empty handed out of each store. It was a bit of a challenge for Eve and Joy, because they could not pinpoint exactly what would look best on Alexa. Simply put, nothing had impressed them yet.

It was seven o'clock when they had reached DuCoeur, a boutique at the end of Mayfair Street. The shop was quite small, but the clothes looked to be rather impressive and a bit on the expensive end. They entered the empty store and were immediately greeted by a young woman who sported bright blonde hair.

"Can I help you ladies?" she said.

"Yes, we're looking for a dress to suit our friend," Eve replied as she motioned to Alexa.

The saleswoman studied Alexa carefully and nodded. "I'll see what we have in the back. In the meantime, feel free to look around," she said as she headed off. Alexa thanked the woman and the three of them took a look around the shop.

"Would you look good in mauve, Alexa?" Joy said as she held up a pale coloured dress. Eve and Alexa both looked at the dress and Eve shook her head.

"It's nice, but it's a bit of a dated colour. Remember, she has to look stunning," Eve called as looked through the racks.

"Yes, but it should still be subtle," Alexa said.

"Well, you should just take a chance on this one. Be a little sexy, you know?" Eve replied.

"I'm sure Q wouldn't mind that," Joy smirked. Both women burst into laughter and Alexa rolled her eyes. The saleswoman came back and informed them that everything in the back was the same as what they had on the floor.

Alexa turned back around and flipped through various shades of red, pinks, and blues. Her browsing was interrupted about fifteen minutes later, when she heard Joy and Eve call her name.

"What?" Alexa said as she turned around.

"We found one," Joy said. They showed her a one-shouldered black dress with diamond accents here and there. It had a silk skirt that (when she wore heels) would flow gracefully behind her, stopping at her ankles. Alexa raised an eyebrow and she nodded.

"I like it so far. May I try it on?" she said.

"By all means, go ahead,"the saleswoman said as she led Alexa to the dressing room. She slipped on the black garment and immediately noticed that it was backless. Alexa liked it overall, but she turned in the mirror and hoped that her scar wouldn't show. She figured that it wouldn't, since it was near the base of her spine. However, she still felt a little uneasy with showing off her back but she decided to take a chance on it anyway.

"How do I look?" Alexa asked as she cautiously stepped out of the dressing room. By the look on everyone's face, it was evident that this was the dress they had been looking for all afternoon.

"He's going to have a heart attack when he sees you, I swear," Joy chuckled.

"Is that a bad thing?" Alexa said as she carefully inspected herself in the mirror.

"Not at all, miss. Your date must be a lucky man," the saleswoman remarked, giving her a wink.

"Is it a bit too risqué?" she said worriedly.

"Risqué? Course not," Eve said matter-of-factly. "You should see what the younger interns wear."

"Now that's risqué," Joy agreed, letting out a laugh.

"Well, I am showing off my back. I certainly don't want him to think of me like that," she said with a shrug.

"It's sexy and it leaves just a bit of room for imagination," Eve said. "In simpler terms, it's lovely."

"Yes, it should be fine. It does look exquisite on you, miss," the woman remarked. Alexa took one last glance in the mirror and a grin spread across her lips.

"Alright, then. I'll take it," she said. The woman went to go ring up the dress and after several minutes, Alexa walked out of DuCoeur with a £250 dress in her shopping bag and a smile on her face. She thanked Eve and Joy and made her way home, where she put the dress on a hanger and unearthed her unused Louboutin pumps. Thankfully, she could dance in heels without falling over because she had established a good sense of balance from her ballet and gymnastics classes.

Alexa left her bedroom and ate her dinner, rushing through her daily bedtime routine. She wrapped the present she had been making Q for the past five weeks now and set out her clothes before heading off to bed, feeling undoubtedly excited for the events that would occur tomorrow.

* * *

My my, love is certainly in the air. What do you think will happen at the soirée? Leave me a review and let me know what you liked, would like, and whatever else.

Until next time!


	10. Chapter 9

Here it is! I was so excited to get this done. Again, thank you for the kind review and although I never did figure out what a hipster tuxedo was, Q does end up wearing a tux. Come to think of it, there are literally no words to describe the thought of Ben Whishaw in a tuxedo; only unintelligible squeals will probably suffice.

Anyway, lots of things happen in this chapter and I'm really quite excited to hear from you all. Hope you like it!

* * *

_A mighty pain to love it is,_

_And 'tis a pain that pain to miss;_

_But of all pains, the greatest pain_

_It is to love, but love in vain._

**_-Abraham Cowley_**

* * *

**_(December 24, 2012- 6:03 PM)_**

Christmas Eve.

It was the one holiday where you could smell love in the air, mixed in with the smell of a roasting ham or a delicious full turkey. The sound of carols and the unmistakeable noise of bells flooded the streets, along with the parents who rushed around the shops in an attempt to buy last-minute presents. Likewise, Christmas Eve was always terribly busy, and this one was no exception.

Alexa currently rushed around her house, attempting to get ready for the party. After taking a rather lengthy shower, she had finally heated up her curling iron and swore loudly when she burnt her hand while attempting to curl her hair. After thirty minutes, she finally managed to arrange her dark brown hair into large, flowing curls that she brushed over her shoulder. She felt quite pleased with how her hair turned out and went back to her bedroom to slip her dress on.

Alexa put her dress on and looked at herself in the mirror, marveling at how the dress showed off her figure. She knew this wasn't a date but she at least hoped that Q would look twice when he saw her. Alexa went back to her vanity and applied a bit of makeup and applied a thin coat of lip gloss. She grabbed a bracelet out of her jewelry box and slipped it on. It had dozens of little diamonds stuck together on a narrow chain and she felt that it completed her look. By the time she was finished, it was nearly seven and she looked gorgeous. Alexa grabbed her coat and headed downstairs, upon hearing the bell ring.

"I'm coming," she called. Alexa put on her shoes and took one last look in the foyer mirror before opening the door.

"Hi," she said, giving him a smile. Q stared at her appearance with a mixture of awe and surprise. He thought she looked lovely before, but it wasn't until now that he realized how beautiful she really was. For once, he managed to stumble on his words and his brain scrambled for something to say.

"What are you wearing?" he finally blurted out. A look of worry crossed her face and she bit her bottom lip.

"Oh, is that a bad thing?" Alexa fretted.

"No, don't think that! What I meant was that..." Q began, his voice trailing off.

"Was what?" she said as she put her coat on. Alexa stopped to look at him and for a moment, their eyes locked before Q finally found what he wanted to say.

"...You look beautiful," he said softly, a small smile appearing on his face.

"Really? Because if I look terrible and you're just kidding, I swear I'll never forgive you," she said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Terrible? No, you look lovely," he scoffed. "Besides, you know that I would never joke about this sort of thing.

"Really?" she said, looking taken aback.

"I mean it. You really do look nice," he promised.

And with this, Alexa turned about ten different shades of pink. "Oh. Well, thank you," she said as she gave him that shy smile of hers that never failed to make his heart beat erratically. She turned off the lights in her house and followed Q to his car, where the two went off to go to the Dorcaster Hotel.

"I still haven't seen what you look like yet," Alexa said as they drove along the streets of London.

"You will eventually," he said reassuringly. "By the way, you'll probably meet my mother sometime tonight. She'll be there are well."

"Do you think she'll like me?" she said hesitantly.

"I'm sure she will, Alexa," he said, smiling slightly at her hesitance. "Don't worry about it."

Q parked his car and walked into the hotel with Alexa. They presented their invitations to the man in front of the ballroom doors and left their coats in the coat room. It was only then that Alexa had been able to fully appreciate Q's tuxedo and she quite liked it.

"You look...fantastic!" Alexa said with a smile.

"Thank you," he said, returning her grin. "Shall we?"

"Hang on, your tie is crooked," she said as she reached up to fix his bowtie.

"Is there any particular reason you decided to wear a red bowtie?" Alexa asked as she straightened the red fabric.

"Well, bowties are cool. Besides, if I wore a regular tie, it'd be too businesslike," he stated. Alexa merely chucked and after she was done, he led her by the arm and the two entered the Dorcaster Ballroom.

The room was elegantly decorated in an array of red and gold, with one area reserved for seating and the other for dancing. As the two of them entered the room, they undoubtedly caught the attention of Q's brothers.

"Well, would you look at that? He actually did it," Mycroft said with a smirk as he saw them approaching. The three of them turned around and Violet waved at her youngest son.

"There's my mum and my brothers," Q said to Alexa. "Would you like to meet them?"

"Sure," Alexa said. She felt nervous, for some inexplicable reason and when they approached, she felt like running away.

"Mum, this is Alexandra Abbott. Alexa, this is my mother, Violet Holmes," he said as he introduced her. Violet looked momentarily surprised, seeing that she hadn't expected Q's date to be that pretty. Alexa could feel the woman studying her carefully as they shook hands and she felt nervous, seeing that this woman had the looks and stature of a dowager queen.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Holmes," Alexa said politely.

"Please, call me Violet. It's lovely to meet you as well," Violet said, evidently looking delighted.

"This is my eldest brother, Mycroft, and I'm sure you recognize Sherlock," he said.

"I've heard a lot about you, Miss Abbott," Mycroft said as she shook hands.

"Nothing too incriminating, I hope," Alexa said.

"Well, I wouldn't say that. But it still is quite interesting," he said with a benevolent smile that made her slightly uneasy. Alexa and Q both took a seat at the table and they both began dinner. While they ate, she engaged in friendly conversation with his mother and it was there that his mother bombarded Alexa with questions.

"So, how old are you, Alexandra?" Violet said.

"I'm twenty-seven," Alexa said.

"You don't look a day over twenty-two, my dear!" she said with a laugh that eased some of the uncertainty in Alexa's heart. "You're still young and pretty. Speaking of which, you seem familiar. Have we seen each other before?"

"Oh, well...Q and I went to the same university. I think I might have graduated second to him," Alexa said as she pondered the thought momentarily. She couldn't remember if this was right, but she recalled Q mention it to her previously at one of their lunches.

"Yeah, you're right," Q agreed.

"Hmm. You must be good at what you do, Miss Abbott," Sherlock said from across the table.

"I wouldn't be the judge of that," Alexa said with a light laugh.

"I disagree. She's quite beneficial to the Q-Branch," Q remarked. With this, Violet beamed with pride because she rarely saw Q speak so well of someone, unless they were good friends.

"I'm assuming you keep him in line if he does anything irrational," Violet said.

"Him, irrational? Oh, please. That's like saying that I'm incredibly responsible," Sherlock said with a roll of his eyes.

"He's had his moments. Need I remind you of the Silva incident? What about Kate?" Mycroft retorted.

"Don't bring that up, Mycroft. Not now," Q said sharply. Violet let out a sigh and shook her head.

"Boys, please. Now is not the time for petty arguments," she said firmly. Immediately, the three men shut up and Alexa stared at Violet, looking both awed and somewhat intimidated. If she could make the three Holmes brothers shut up like that, then she was definitely someone to be intimidated of.

"Well, I guess that Sherlock's right. Q never does anything irrational. Theoretically, if he were to do something a bit out of line, then I'd be sure to inform him," Alexa said as she took a sip of her drink.

"That's lovely to hear. Honestly, they're quite hard to handle and it's tough to find anyone who's willing to put up with them," Violet said.

"We're still here, mum," Q said, rolling his eyes.

"I understand that. You were all supposed to hear it anyway," Violet replied. She peered curiously at Alexa for a moment and leaned forward slightly.

"What about you? Do you have siblings to keep in line as well?" she asked. Q had to fight the urge from kicking his mother under the table, knowing that the subject of Alexa's origins were rather hazy and quite touchy. Alexa answered nonetheless, looking quite unaffected while she did so.

"I don't have siblings," she said simply.

"No siblings? That must be quite lonely," Violet said.

"Mum-" Q began. He attempted to keep her from delving any further and creating an awkward situation, but his warning didn't seem to have any effect on her whatsoever.

"Tell me, what were your parents like as you grew up? I've always wondered how parenting style of an only child differs with that of multiple child families," Violet said.

"I don't really have parents. I'm an orphan," Alexa said with a laugh, attempting to embarrass Violet as little as possible.

"Oh! I apologize for prying," Violet said as she turned a faint shade of pink.

"It's perfectly alright," she replied lightheartedly.

"Are you quite done interrogating her, mum?" Q said with a roll of his eyes.

"I wouldn't call it an interrogation. But yes, I am finished," she said, looking pleased.

"Well, would you care to dance, Alexa?" Q said as he stood up.

"Only if you can keep up with me," Alexa said with a smirk.

"Consider your challenge accepted," he said as he led her off towards the ballroom floor. The orchestra (comprised of fifteen talented string players, a woodwind section, and percussion) had already begun their next song, which was the famed _Invitation To The Dance _by Carl Maria von Weber. The song started out slow and soft but began to build as they stepped onto the floor.

Q placed his hand at the bottom of her back and Alexa put her hand on his back, near his neck. The position for a waltz was rather intimate and for once, she found that there was no way that she could not look away from his eyes. There was nowhere else to look and it was rather scary, to say the least. She felt her heart pounding loudly in her chest, to the point where she swore she could hear it. Their fingers intertwined and the two began to whirl gracefully across the floor in time to the waltz. Their steps went in time with each other's, not missing a single beat. Their dance was dizzying at some moments and he could not take his gaze away from the smile on her face. She, however, would look at him for a moment before looking over his shoulder, with a pink tint appearing on her cheeks.

As they danced, she locked eyes with a blonde-haired gentleman from across the room. The visual encounter was rather brief but it struck her to the bone with raw and pure fear. He looked like one of the soldiers from Operation Chetiri. She tried to look away from him quickly but alas, it was too late. He had spotted her and merely smiled at her rather unassumingly as they whirled by, like he had been a complete stranger. She tried to calm herself and reassured herself by saying that she had just been seeing things. He wasn't re-

"-re you alright? You look worried," Q said.

"Huh?" Alexa said as she glanced up.

"Are you ok?" Q asked.

"Oh, I'm okay," she lied. However, she could not hide how much the encounter had shaken her; her hands trembled slightly and her steps were not as lively as before. Q merely raised and eyebrow at her strange behaviour and continued on with their waltz.

"By the way, do you usually talk while dancing?" he finally asked.

"Most people prefer to be unsociable and taciturn while dancing but I think otherwise," she said. "That takes the fun out of it, doesn't it?"

"Point taken. By the way, you are an excellent dancer," he said, with a smile on his face. "Have you taken ballet before?"

"Yes, when I was young. How did you know?" she said curiously.

"It's the way you walk. You walk with your feet slightly outward, which is one of the characteristics of a dancer," he pointed out.

"Even I never noticed that! How very observant of you," Alexa exclaimed.

"Well, that's another interest of yours that you haven't mentioned to me," he chuckled.

"You know, you're an exceptional dancer too. There are very few men that can dance like this. How can you dance so well?" she said with a twinkle in her eyes.

"My mother made all of us learn when we were young. To be honest, I don't think any of us wanted to learn. However, she claimed that it trained coordination and was a proper, if not dying art," Q replied.

"Well, I'm impressed, to say the least. At least both of us can dance," Alexa said as she glanced briefly at another man and woman near them who were attempting to waltz but failing to some degree. Despite her panic from earlier, it had quickly faded and she found herself laughing with him once more as they continued to waltz happily across the ballroom.

"To be honest, I half-expected you to have two left feet, in terms of dancing," he said.

"Consider your assumptions wrong, then," she grinned. Q returned her smile and she whirled around once, her skirt flowing gracefully behind her. The song was coming to an end and he dipped her down for their finale. Their noses were barely touching now and by this point, she felt herself blushing crimson.

"Alexa, be completely honest. Are you attracted to me?" Q said abruptly, the words so soft that only she could have heard it.

A feeling of shock struck her and internally, she felt paralyzed and was unsure of how to answer such a question. It was literally asked from out of the blue and she wasn't sure of what to say. Alexa had never been adept with such matters anyway and she could tell that it was seriously meant, so she could not pass this off as a simple joke. She wondered how long it had taken him to gather the courage to ask this and racked her brain for a proper response.

"I...what? Q, what makes you say that?" she said hesitantly as they righted their position, their bodies still quite close to each other's.

"There's that way you look at me sometimes, and that way you don't look at me. For instance, you kept doing it while we were dancing. You and I also tend to spend quite a bit of time together. There are times where I grab your hand and you turn a very distinct shade of pink," he said. They locked eyes for a while and she finally gave up, knowing that her affections had been discovered. Instead of putting her feelings into words, she impulsively decided that this was not what she wanted. Without warning, she pressed her lips against his to kiss him for only a moment.

The kiss was rather quick and everyone else barely noticed it but nonetheless, it was pure and utterly sincere. Alexa pulled away and felt a sensation in her body that could not compare to anything else she had felt before. It left her breathless and rather lightheaded, but it was not an uninvited feeling.

"I hope that explains how I feel about you," Alexa said softly, attempting to sound casual to hide how nervous she was. His face fell and he nodded slowly.

"I see," he said.

"Why, is that a bad thing?" Alexa said, feeling panic rising up in her throat. She had never once admitted feelings for anyone and she was afraid to hear what he would say.

"Alexa, I..." Q said, his voice trailing off. He did like her a fair deal but the problem was that there was still that damnably human doubt that remained and it seemed that he was still afraid to love again. Right now, he could not form an exact definition of what he truly wanted and it troubled him.

"I don't think I..." he said, his voice trailing off. Q fell silent after this, which essentially made her assume one thing.

Her love was unrequited.

"Oh," she said, attempting not to look as though she were pathetically disappointed. She felt her heart sinking in her chest and she pulled away from him.

"Alexa, I will not deny that there have been times where I have felt attracted to you, and..." Q said, his voice trailing off once more.

At these words, Alexa let out a soft laugh and merely nodded wistfully.

"Q, it's alright. I understand," she said. Alexa felt shame flooding her body and she turned around and began walking away. She made her way off the floor and avoided people's gazes, her mind set on getting her coat and going home. She felt embarrassed for kissing him like that and knew that it would be best to just leave.

"Alexa, wait! Where are you going?" Q said as he followed after her. She grabbed her coat and put it on as she walked quickly down the hallway. Alexa made her way outside, the frosty winter air blowing through her hair. Snowflakes fell on her lashes and she wrapped her coat around her as she stepped onto the curb of the hotel.

"I think it would be best for me to go," she said as she tried to keep her voice and emotions in control. Alexa had never felt so much emotion at one time and it was really quite a different and scary thing to experience. She didn't think that she would cry but for some reason it felt like that she was ready to burst into tears at any moment. Unrequited love left an unpleasant feeling inside of her and she wanted nothing more than to head home and be alone for a while.

"I...wait, don't go. I'm so-" he began as he grabbed her by the hand. Alexa didn't turn to face him and merely shook her head. She broke free of his grip and made her way into the cab that had arrived.

"Thank you for the lovely evening. I'll see you later," Alexa said as she gave him a smile that lacked warmth and was rather hollow. It was a rather dull statement and she found that it was the only thing she could say. She shut the door behind her and told the man to drive.

Alexa left the hotel and told the driver to take her home. Her body was shaking with an emotion she could not quite place. Was it anger? No. Fury? Definitely not. She felt as if her heart had been torn in half and she felt tears streaming down her cheeks. The fact that he didn't love her back had now sunk in and she had never felt so foolish for admitting her affections, not to mention in a public place. What had gotten into her? It hurt to feel rejected and it was something she decided she would never want to experience again.

Alexa went home and wiped away her tears, locking her front door behind her. She kicked off her heels into the corner and went up to her bedroom to change into her pyjamas. Alexa wanted Q to be out of her thoughts for as long as possible and turned on the television a bit louder than usual in an effort to distract herself. She settled into her bed with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and drank her mug of tea, listening to the television drone on about politics and current affairs. After about an hour of listening to the news, she soon grew tired of everything and she turned off her television, falling into a deep and dreamless sleep.

* * *

Meanwhile, a man stood at the front of the Dorcaster hotel, with his phone pressed against his ear. He was a bit of an older gentleman and was lean and muscular for a man of thirty. His light blonde hair contrasted with his sharp blue eyes and he pushed up the collar to his coat. The dial tone rang for several seconds before a male voice rang out on the line.

"Have you killed Bond?" the voice said.

"No. I decided against it," he replied.

"You aren't authorized to disobey orders!" the man snapped. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"Well, I found something even better," he drawled.

"Go on. What is it?" the man said angrily.

"She's here."

The man on the line paused for a moment and held his breath. "Her? As in..."

"Yes. Maxwell's information wasn't wrong after all," he said.

"Are you sure it's her? If you aren't, I swear we wi-" he replied angrily.

"Relax. I recognized her almost immediately. Her face has hardly changed from her past photographs, so it's not a face you can forget," the blonde haired man said coolly. There was another pause on the line before his companion spoke once more.

"Confirm that it's really her. Then we'll act," he replied. There was a click and all that the man could hear now was the dial tone on the phone. He put his phone back in his pocket and strode down the snowy street with a bit of a spring in his step. The man was almost entirely sure that the woman he had seen tonight was none other than Alexandra Nikolova herself. He smirked at knowing that Alexa was here and almost a decade's worth of following dead leads was coming to a close. The Division would crush her perfect little world and anyone affiliated with it.

And there wasn't a damn thing that she could do to stop them.

* * *

I told you things would happen in this one! But anyway, what did you think about it? Was it good and what do you think will happen next, now that the Division has come into play?

Again, leave me some feedback if you can!


	11. Chapter 10

Wow, I didn't expect to get that many reviews, follows, and favorites from only one chapter! And for that, I would like to give a special thank you to Fingirl, TimeLady945, lyndsey13, and wendythemoustache for reviewing. Thank you to all who followed and favorited and enjoy your reading!

(_P.S. Bondlock may play a bigger part in this than I initially thought._)

* * *

_Alas, I emerge from one disaster to fall into another._

_-**Pierre Corneille**_

* * *

**_(December 26, 2012- 8:43 PM)_**

Alexa hopped onto the morning train at Euston Square Station and headed off to work. In truth, she really did not want to go and only came to show that she was alright, even after what happened on that fateful Christmas Eve. She placed a small and carefully wrapped box in her purse and stepped off the train at precisely 8:53 AM.

She walked into the office, giving a somewhat lackluster greeting to people as she passed by. Alexa went into the Q-Branch and quietly shut the door behind her. "Morning," she said, attempting to sound cheerful.

"Good morning," Q said as he turned around to face her. There was a different aura in the air and it became evident to everyone that something had indeed occurred between the two of them.

"Alexa, I've been calling you since yesterday. Where were you?" Joy said.

"I went to Bristol," she lied. "I spent Christmas Day with an old friend of mine."

"I thought that you didn't have old friends," Q said.

"He has a point," George said. Alexa silently swore and sat down, merely shrugging. There was a period of silence before Alexa suddenly remembered the box she had brought and fished it out of her purse.

"This is for you, by the way. I made it for your Christmas present," Alexa said softly as she walked up to Q. He opened the box curiously and pulled out an object that looked like a pen but it was not quite the same. However, Q recognized its shape and looked at it with interest.

"Is this what I think it is?" he asked.

"It's a functional sonic screwdriver, of sorts. It's not quite as glamorous as Doctor Who paints it to be, but it does indeed operate like the real thing, coming equipped with a signal jammer and field diagnostic software, among other things. I thought you would enjoy it," she said.

"You made this?" he said as he inspected the object. Alexa merely nodded and headed towards her desk.

"I hope you enjoy your present," she said, smiling despite how uncomfortable she felt. It truly felt weird to be around him like this but she felt at least some of it fading away, if only for a moment. He glanced back at her and his eyes softened slightly.

"Well, thank you for the gift. I had one for you as well, but it's at my flat. I never got to give it to you that evening because you, er..." Q said, his voice trailing off. He realized that he had accidentally brought up that night and cut himself short, not knowing what to say.

It was as if a switch had flicked back on in Alexa's mind. Her smile had faded, morphing back into her passive expression. Alexa merely nodded and slipped quietly into her regular routine and began working on the papers on her desk. It was admittedly a quiet and awkward start to the day and she chose not to speak for the majority of it.

Alexa also chose to refrain from looking at Q or even in his general direction. She glanced up only once after sitting for several hours at her desk and happened to lock eyes with him. Alexa looked back down somewhat guiltily and kept herself busy. It was no surprise that when it came down to lunch time, she found herself inexplicably nervous. She set down her pencil and stood up, making every effort to slip out of the room as stealthily as possible. Alexa turned around and began to make her way towards the door when she heard Q call her name.

"Alexa," he said. She inwardly cringed and turned back around slowly.

"Yes?" she said hesitantly.

"I...look, I apologize for what happened on Tuesday. Can I at least take you out for lunch so we can tal-" he asked.

Alexa's phone rang suddenly, cutting him off and she stared at the phone that was buzzing on the table with a mixture of awe and relief. It had saved her from a potentially awkward hour with Q. "Sorry. I'll just silence that," she said sounding both embarrassed and utterly relieved.

"No, go ahead and take it. It's not a problem," he said as he set his mug back on the table. The one time he actually tried to take her out had been intercepted by a phone call. He honestly couldn't believe his luck sometimes.

"Hello?" Alexa said as she picked up the phone.

"Don't go to lunch with Q," the voice said. It sounded male and somewhat familiar, which greatly troubled her.

"Sorry, who-" she began.

"You will have a chance to meet me later, Alexa. For now, decline his lunch offer," he said.

"Why?" Alexa said, sounding puzzled.

"You and I have very important matters to discuss. Now, go. Refuse him," he said.

"What happens if I don't?" she said.

"Would you really rather spend an hour with Q, after what happened?" the man said. Alexa hesitated for a moment and she set her phone down momentarily.

"I'm sorry, Q. I think that lunch offer may have to wait. Something...came up," she said lamely.

"Oh. Well, that's alright. Your personal affairs should naturally take precedence," he mumbled as he walked back to his desk. Alexa watched him and felt a pang of guilt strike her but she said goodbye and left the room.

"What's going on?" she said as she nestled her phone under the crook of her neck. She slipped her coat on and slung her purse over one shoulder. Alexa showed her pass and made her way out of the MI6 headquarters

"You'll know soon enough. For now, there is a black car waiting for you at the entrance. Do you see it?" he said. Alexa spotted the vehicle almost immediately and a sharply dressed woman stood outside of the car, holding her Blackberry in one hand.

"Of course. I'm not an idiot," she scoffed.

"I would like you to get in," the man said.

"Well, where the hell am I going? Why should I even listen to you anyway? I have no idea who you are," she snapped. There was a brief chuckle on the other line before he spoke again and Alexa could swear that she saw the woman at the car smirking slightly.

"Alexandra, I am not here to harm you. I would just like to voice my concerns. Now, get in the car," he said. Alexa hesitated slightly and quickly remembered several ways to escape before climbing into the vehicle. The woman went in with her and the two sped off into the streets of London.

Alexa rode silently in the car, glancing only occasionally at the brunette that sat next to her. She more or less ignored Alexa and appeared to be writing an email, her fingers flying quickly over the Blackberry's tiny keyboard.

"Excuse me, who sent you?" Alexa asked. The woman looked up for a moment and back down at her phone.

"You'll see," she said.

"Will you at least tell me where we're going?" Alexa said.

"Nope," the woman responded, putting emphasis on the P. Alexa rolled her eyes and looked back out the window. She was silent as they went through the various stoplights and intersections before asking another question.

"If I'm going to be kidnapped, I might as well know your name. Who are you?" she asked. The woman paused for a moment before responding.

"Call me Anthea," she said. Anthea leaned forward and told the driver to park and the car soon came to a stop. Alexa got out and the woman led her into a small and rather quiet eatery.

The bell rang as they entered the restaurant with plush red chairs and ecru walls. The heavenly scent of baking bread and meat filled the air, making her stomach grumble in response. It was quite deserted for a midday meal, which seemed rather strange. A restaurant was usually filled to the brim around lunchtime with Armani-clad businessmen and tastefully-dressed career women. Anthea's heels clicked softly against the marble floors, covered with black and white harlequin tiles.

"Sir, I've brought Miss Abbott like you have instructed me to. By the way, lunch with DI Lestrade has been moved to Friday," she said, looking slightly bored as she approached the man. Alexa immediately recognized him to be Q's older brother, Mycroft.

"Ah, thank you Anthea. You may head back to the car for now," he said. Mycroft returned his attention to Alexa and held out his hand.

"Lovely to see you again, Alexandra. Please, take a seat," he said. She sat at the empty chair and felt terribly nervous, even just by sitting here.

"Feel free to call me Alexa. Is something wrong?" she asked.

"You could say that," he said as he took a sip of tea.

"Well? What is it?" she said worriedly.

"I saw what you did at the party on Tuesday," Mycroft said. Alexa cheeks flushed bright red and she shook her head.

"That was impulsive and reckless and...above all, very stupid. I hope to never do it again," she said firmly.

"On the contrary, I thought that Q enjoyed it, so maybe it wasn't entirely a bad thing," he pointed out.

"Yes, it was!" Alexa said, her voice coming out a lot sharper than she had mean to and she flinched. The words echoed around the generally empty restaurant and she drew back.

"I mean, it doesn't matter. It's not like he feels the same way-" she began.

"Don't be ridiculous," he scoffed. "Q loves you. Only an idiot could overlook that. Besides, I believe that it does indeed matter, since you seem to be spending a lot of time with my youngest brother."

"Well, I kind of work with him," Alexa pointed out.

"Not that way. He seems to like you quite a lot and it leaves me quite...hmm, what's the word? Ah yes, concerned," he said as he folded his hands in front of him.

"Why?" Alexa said.

"I know who you are," Mycroft said gravely.

"I'm Alexandra Abbott. There's nothing more to it," she said as she stood up. She began walking away but stopped when he said the two words she hadn't heard in years.

"Don't you mean Agent Chetiri?" he said. Alexa found that she could not move and her hands began to shake. Her knees felt as if they would give out and despite her moment of weakness, she turned around.

"What?" she said.

"Take a seat, Alexa," he said calmly. Alexa stared at him for a moment and she unwillingly took a seat. She wanted nothing more but to run away, but she knew that she had to stay and listen to what this man had to say.

"How do you..." she began.

"I have connections in every country, Alexa. I know what you did," he coolly.

"What are you?" she said warily.

"I'm a politician, of sorts. I work in the shadows to keep this country running smoothly. I'm at a position higher than that of the Prime Minister, one I constructed myself," Mycroft said.

"So...how did you find out?" Alexa said.

"Well, Sherlock told me what he had deduced when he met you a little while ago. Naturally, I became curious looked into your files," he said.

"What about Sherlock? Has he delved into my past?" she said.

"I think he may have, a little bit. Either way, he's currently occupied with a case so he doesn't particularly care at the moment," he said.

"Anyway, I noticed how well your past was constructed. Generally, it would have been fine but it seemed that everything led to a dead end and that made me wary of you. I was able to tap into the MI6's CCTV feed and I matched your facial structure with different files collected from around the globe. It took a week but after a bit of work, I traced it back to Alexandra Nikolova in Russia. You really don't look that much different from your past photographs," Mycroft remarked.

"How did you find out about Operation Chetiri?" she said.

"It isn't entirely too difficult to get into Russia's government database. Or rather, it wasn't difficult for Q and I to get in," he said casually as he accepted a sandwich from the vest-clad waiter who came by and offered them lunch.

"What?! Does he know?" Alexa exclaimed.

"Of course not. I got past their firewall and I first found your name through your birth certificate. Furthermore, I connected you to Natalia Nikolova and Dmitri Nikolov, and their files were easy to access. The files for Operation Chetiri were harder to access, so I had Q get in."

"But he doesn't know, right?" she said.

"Your lovely little boyfriend doesn't know a thing. I more or less kicked him out of my house after he got through. Besides, I usually call him in regularly for matters with such a delicate nature like these, so he didn't expect too much of it," Mycroft said.

"He's no-" she protested.

"Of course. But he might as well be. It's rather sad, really, that he hasn't acted on it yet," he said with a smirk. Alexa rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest.

"But wait, most of it is probably in Russian," she said.

"True. However, the three of us can speak several languages," he replied.

"Why does this not surprise me?" she muttered.

"Well, it's a crucial skill, if you want to compete with the world today," Mycroft explained as he took a sip of his tea. "Russian is one of the few languages that all three of us can speak, aside from English, French, and our laughable attempts at German, of course."

Alexa fell silent and stared at the sandwich on her plate, in order to think of something to say. She took a bite of the sandwich and forced herself to eat a bit. After a few bites, she realized that she would unable to eat with the level of stress she was feeling at the moment. It left her sick to her stomach and the strong scent of Mycroft's tea really wasn't helping.

"What exactly did you find?" she said cautiously as she set her hand down on the table.

"On the surface, you disappeared along with your parents in 1989. Their bodies were never found and neither was yours. The case was closed but upon further inspection, I found your name in a report for a program called Operation Chetiri," he said.

"I didn't think files even existed for something as terrible and top secret as that. How did you get ahold of them?" Alexa said.

"You wouldn't believe the lengths I had to go to in order to get that information. The files on Operation Chetiri were at a very deep level of security and after a few hours, I finally gave up and called Q in again to get the files. I told him it was for a job of mine and he was able to get past their firewalls at that level. Honestly, all of it was terribly annoying," he sighed. Alexa studied him for a moment and set her hands down on the table.

"Alright, so you are aware of what I was. However, I can promise you that I won't hurt him at all. That's the last thing I want," she said.

"I understand that. The trouble here is that you won't hurt him physically, but there is a high chance that you will do it inadvertently," Mycroft said.

"How?"

Mycroft fell silent for a moment, with eyes that had a gleam of worry before his gaze drifted back towards hers. "When I became interested in you and your past, it soon became evident that I wasn't the only interested party on your trail," Mycroft said.

Alexa's eyes immediately darkened with concern and it did not help to the dreadful feeling in her stomach. "Who else is looking for me?" she said, her voice in a near whisper.

"There has been a man following you since this morning. Do you recognize him?" he said as he pulled out some photographs from his pocket. Alexa squinted at the folded paper and felt her heart stop a little when she saw it.

The man she saw on Christmas Eve had not been a mistake after all.

"That's Sergei Volkov, from the..." she said, her voice trailing off.

"Ah, so you do remember. The Division, or whatever they call themselves have apparently been looking for you for the last nine years," he said.

"How do they know I'm alive?" she said, looking puzzled. Alexa had tried her best to be careful and it felt terribly unfair for life to spring this on her right now.

"I'm assuming they found out from the information given to them in the Maxwell affair. They have obviously come here for you and that's what really concerns me," Mycroft said.

"But why do you even care? You barely know me," she asked.

"Q and I may not exactly see eye to eye, but it doesn't change the fact that I am his eldest brother and no matter what he says or thinks, I do care about him. Frankly, I worry about that boy constantly and I am concerned for his safety. It is to my understanding that in the event that the Division does attack you, his life could be in danger as well, which is why this matter is not to be taken lightly," Mycroft said.

"What the hell am I supposed to do?" Alexa said, sounding bewildered. For the first time in a long time, she felt genuine fear and she was unsure of how to proceed.

"Well, do you know how you want to handle this situation? There's only one solution and I'm sure that both of us can see that," Mycroft said.

"I don't know! I care about him probably more than I should and I would like nothing more than to keep him safe, but..." she began, her voice trailing off.

"You know what you have to do, Alexa," Mycroft said.

"Do I?" she said aloud. Her train of thought was cut short when he put a large envelope on the table and passed it to her.

"What's this?" she said as she tried to open it.

"I have a very specific plan to make you vanish, which involves assuming several new identities. You must leave London if you want to ensure his safety," Mycroft said.

"What exactly does this plan entail?" Alexa said.

"I'm still tweaking the logistics, but this envelope will more or less be your life for the next six months. It contains several paper documents such as birth certificates, a plane ticket, housing arrangements, and so on. I still need to photograph you so I can put that picture on your passports and licenses. If you agree, I will make you disappear for the benefit of us all. By disappear, I mean to say that we will eliminate this current identity," he said.

"So you're going to kill me?" she said.

"Not exactly. We're going to fake your death," Mycroft said with a smile.

"What happens if I do disappear?" Alexa said.

"The Division will recognize that you are dead and leave my brother alone. There will be lower chance that they would hurt him, if they know you're dead. I will keep an eye on him to make sure," he replied.

"That means you'll send bodyguards to follow him, correct?" Alexa said.

"Certainly," Mycroft said.

"And if I don't leave London, what happens then?" she said hesitantly.

"The Division will find you and strike, obviously," he scoffed. "That endangers Q's life and neither of us want that."

Mycroft leaned forward and looked at her directly, his sharp gaze cutting into hers. "Do you accept my proposition?"

"I..." she began. Alexa's hands were shaking and she stared at the envelope. Her thoughts were muddled and she could not accept his offer right now. She knew she had to keep him safe, but she didn't want to leave. Alexa truly did love him and she wanted to stay. She felt torn with doing the right thing and doing what she wanted.

"I...need time to think about this," she finally said, sighing as she ran a hand through her hair.

"I understand that this is a difficult decision, but I need an answer as soon as possible," Mycroft said.

"I'll provide an answer soon, I promise," Alexa said. She could feel a constricting feeling in her chest that threatened to burst out of her ribcage and Alexa felt the room growing smaller and smaller. There was no way she could be in here any longer. She needed to get out of here as soon as possible. Alexa stood up and took the envelope, shaking hands with him.

"Thank you for all of this," she said, sounding weary.

"It's fine. I really would like nothing more than to see this problem sorted out," he said. "He seems to be quite fond of you, which is why I care so much."

Mycroft studied her for a moment before continuing. "You also seem to care for him quite a great deal," he said.

"I...yeah, I do. I won't even deny it. The last thing I want him is for him to get involved," she said.

"He won't, if you choose. This is all on your decision," Mycroft said. Alexa merely nodded and stared down at her feet. Mycroft led her outside and escorted her to the waiting car. Alexa said goodbye once more before heading back to the headquarters with Anthea, who still seemed to be typing furiously on her phone.

Alexa went back into the building and clutched the envelope tightly to her chest, afraid that someone would see the secrets that were hidden away inside. She went back to the Q-Branch and walked back to her desk, the sound of her heels hitting the concrete ringing in her ears. Q was arguing with someone on the phone and she sat back down at her desk, determined to work. It was a last ditch attempt to keep her mind off her current issue and for several hours, it seemed to work. It did not seem to work, however, as all she could think about was the situation presented by her assailant and Mycroft's offer.

It was near the end of the day when she finally decided to stop working. As always, everyone had left except for her and Q. To be honest, she had not even heard that they had all left. All she had heard for the past few hours was the noise emitted by her jumbled thoughts. It was a constant and random mix of different emotions and ideas that seemed to scream violently at her, leaving her with a splitting headache. By the time she had set her pencil down, her brain was crying out from exhaustion and her mouth felt dry. She felt ready to crack at any moment now, her mind filled with thoughts of the Division and Q's safety. Alexa let out a sigh and set down a shaking hand on the table, unintentionally knocking a book onto the floor.

The sound of the book hitting the floor scared her so badly that she let out a startled cry. Q heard her shriek and turned to glance at her. When he did so, he immediately sensed that something was really off. "Alexa, are you alright?" he asked as he glanced at her rather questionable behaviour.

"Oh, I'm fine," Alexa said quickly as she gathered the book from the floor, attempting to calm down. She let out a sigh and set it on the table.

"Are you sure?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"That just startled me," she said casually, which seemed out of place, given her current state. His eyes narrowed and he walked over to her desk. Something had happened over lunch and he was determined to find out.

"Alright, then. Did you fix the issues with the Rn130 system we were developing?" he asked. Q noted that as he asked her this, her mind seemed to go blank and she had a lost and rather helpless look in her eyes.

"Alexa?" he said after a few moments of silence. She seemed to snap back to life and let out another sigh.

"Sorry, I can't really get my thoughts in order today. Can you repeat that?" Alexa said as she ran a hand through her hair.

"Did you fix the problems with the Rn130?" Q asked.

"I did. They should have no further issues with the input values," she replied. Q merely nodded and without warning, picked up her hand.

"You're shaking," he said, his voice surprisingly gentle. "Did something happen?"

Alexa outwardly flinched at his touch and immediately drew her hand back. "Uh...n-no. I'm just a bit high strung, that's all. Probably had too much coffee," she said, letting out a pathetically forged laugh.

"Alexa," he said with a roll of his eyes. "This isn't how you normally are."

"Is it? I'm fine, I promise," she insisted. His eyes narrowed and he wondered if he could make her crack, just by looking at her. Q figured that he could at least try; it wasn't like he could lose anything from testing it.

There was always a first time for everything, wasn't there?

"Alexandra Abbott, who was that person on the phone earlier?" Q said firmly, staring directly at her. His blue-green eyes locked with her grey eyes and his undivided attention made her nervous. He had never looked at her with such concentration and it was truly intimidating, even for a woman of her background. Alexa could feel herself crumbling under his unrelenting gaze and she said the first thing that popped into her mind.

"What man?" she blurted out, without thinking carefully about her words. The smirk on his face made her realize that she wasn't supposed to say that.

"Oh, damn. I wasn't supposed to say that," Alexa groaned.

"Huh. I didn't think it would work, but it did," he said, looking fairly pleased with himself. "So, will you tell me who the man on the phone was?"

"No," she said, shaking her head.

"Alexa, whatever he told you had been causing you to act like this. Who was he?" Q asked

"Nobody," she said crisply.

"Look, I just want to know. It worries me, seeing you like this," He said.

"It's fine," she replied as she stood up. Alexa had a feeling that this conversation could only get worse and she was nearing her breaking point. She had to get away from him as soon as possible, or else they would say things to each other that could be good or bad.

"It is most certainly not fine. What did he say?" Q insisted.

"He didn't say anything. Anyway, it doesn't matter," Alexa said, her voice wavering slightly.

"Well, you matter to me, so I consider this to be important," he interjected.

By then, she could not bear to see him continue any longer and whirled around, looking like she had just been slapped in the face. Her eyes held a heart-wrenching look of hurt and they began to fill with tears. She could feel anger, along with a myriad of emotions rising in her chest, to the point where her heart was ready to spill over with such fervor. Alexa had never cried (or come close to crying) around anyone and she hated showing such a pathetic display of weakness.

"Q, please don't do that," she said, attempting to keep her her voice in control for their sake.

"Do what? Alexa-" he said, alarmed by the abundance of pain in her eyes. Although he had known her for a little while, he had never seen her show so much emotion externally. It seemed that she was intentionally keeping such feelings such as pain and sadness out of view from anyone else, like it was an ambiguous and unstable side of her heart that she wouldn't allow anyone to access. Alexa was obviously stressed over something and he had a hunch that if he said the correct things, then maybe she could tell him why she was upset and possibly reconcile their earlier situation at the party.

"I don't want you to feel like you have to pretend to care about me after what happened," Alexa said as she shook her head, with a hint of anger in her voice.

"But Alexa, I'm not pretending to care. Not at all," Q replied, putting his hand on hers. Oddly enough, he was not afraid to touch her (though she was seemingly angry at him) and he rested his hand on top of hers, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Her anger soon began to fade upon realizing that his actions were sincere and she felt guilty for lashing out at him. She out a shaky sigh and became unnervingly quiet. Alexa did not speak for several moments and she soon realized how weary she felt. She wanted to end this conversation right here and now, not wanting to face all of this in one go. She'd had enough for one day. Alexa needed time to think about what was going to happen to her, to Q, and to everyone else that she cared dearly for.

"I'm sorry, Q. I can't really think clearly right now and I don't want to say anything I don't mean," she admitted, running a hand through her hair. "Can we just...talk about this later?"

His expression fell, but he merely nodded in response. "Well, okay. Just...know that I'm not pretending to care. I do worry about you, especially in moments such as these. I may not exactly understand what's happening, but it doesn't mean I don't care," he said softly.

"Thank you," she murmured quietly. She nodded and left the room, soon exiting the headquarters. Q's words echoed in her brain and it was here that she realized how patient he was being with her. He was too good for her and she was fully aware of it.

That what made her want to protect him even more.

* * *

Big brother Mycroft always has a plan! Anyway, how did this one make you guys feel? Happy? Sad? Questions and comments and constructive criticism are always welcome!


	12. Chapter 11

It's Saturday again, which means a new chapter! Thanks for the reviews, Guest and TimeLady945 and I hope everyone likes what's happened so far.

Have a good read!

* * *

_So it's true, when all is said and done, grief is the sole price we pay for love._

_**-E.A. Bucchianeri**_

* * *

**_(December 27, 2013- 9:30 AM)_**

Alexa was not there that morning.

She was uncharacteristically late and Q was really beginning to worry for her well being. The day before, she had been rather disconnected, like her mind was jumping from place to place and she was constantly thinking about something. It had gotten to the point where everyone else had noticed her demeanor and it affected her work greatly. There was something different in her eyes now and she looked troubled, when she thought that nobody was looking at her.

Q remained at his desk and decidedly gave her another hour to arrive. Maybe something had come up, like it had a few days ago. However, her seat remained empty for a full hour that soon turned into four, before finally turning into a full fledged six hours of absence.

Q had stared at it throughout the day, feeling a pang of guilt and a little bit of frustration. What had he done wrong? He was trying to make something work, at least, but it seemed that she was now unwilling to try. What had made her change her mind? Had he merely disheartened her or had he inadvertently crushed her hopes, along with all chance of being with her?

He finished his paperwork before heading to the break room to grab a cup of tea. Q went in and spotted Joy, who was talking quietly with Eve. They did not glance at him as he walked in, apparently not noticing that he was even there.

"-'m telling you, there's something wrong with Alexa. She seemed so...out of it yesterday," Joy said.

"I saw her. She wasn't acting like her usual self. What do you think happened to her?" Eve replied.

"It might have something to do with what happened at the party the other night," she muttered.

"Oh! You're right. I saw that. It was rather sweet of her, wasn't it?" Eve said.

"Maybe Q doesn't like her back. I would presume that Alexa doesn't take rejection well, given how shy she is," Joy said.

"That's also true. Q does have a tendency to over think his emotions," Eve remarked. Q merely rolled his eyes and stirred the tea in his mug.

"Ladies, you do realize that I'm standing right here, don't you?" he said casually as he leaned against the counter. Both women looked up at him with startled eyes and Eve glared at Q.

"You! What have you done to Alexa this time?" she said as she poked a finger at his chest.

"You basically said it earlier," he said.

"Well, tell us what really happened," Eve said.

"It's a long story, actually. However, to put it in simpler terms, she and I kissed at that party and I was going to tell her that I didn't know how I felt about her, but she cut me off," Q said as he took a sip of his drink.

"Oh, Q! You were actually going to say that?" Joy groaned.

"I now realize that it wasn't the right thing to say," he pointed out.

"So that's why she's been so out of it lately," Eve grumbled.

"Actually, the kiss was only half of the equation. Something happened yesterday that made her very upset and rather scatterbrained and she refuses to tell me what it is, much less speak to me," Q said.

"For god's sake, just fix things with her already! It's so weird seeing her like this and quite honestly, none of us like it. Alexa shouldn't be distant like that," Joy said, shaking her head.

"I know that. I'm heading off to talk to her after work," he said as he rinsed out the empty mug.

"Good, then! She needs that apology," Eve muttered as Q left the room. She watched him go and let out a long sigh.

"He's so careful with whomever he chooses to fall in love with," she said.

"If not, too careful," Joy remarked. There was a momentary pause between the two woman before one of them spoke.

"Do you think he'll realize that he does loves her?" Eve said.

"Maybe. We'll just have to wait and see."

* * *

Q went to Alexa's home after work that day and strode up the steps leading to her little townhouse. He rang the bell but after a few minutes, it became evident that she was either ignoring him or simply not here. Q tried again and simply waited, checking his watch after about five minutes, all to no avail. He looked around the doorway before lifting the mat. He half expected a key to be lying under there and was surprised to actually find one. It was such a mundane spot to hide the key and he found himself rolling his eyes at the thought. Q put the key in the lock and turned the doorknob.

"Alexa? Are you here?" he called as he entered her house. Q walked into the kitchen on the right, his shoes clicking softly against the hardwood floors. He eventually found her sitting in the living room, with a blanket around her shoulders. She was staring at the wall, looking rather vacant. The sound of his footsteps snapped her out of her reverie and she looked up at him.

"Q? How did you get in?" she asked, looking bewildered. Alexa had honestly lost her sense of time and hadn't even noticed the bell ringing. She had been too busy thinking about Mycroft's offer.

"Next time, think of a better place to hide your key," he said as he took a seat next to her. "Where have you been?"

"Here," Alexa mumbled as she wrapped the blanket tightly around her.

"What's wrong?" Q asked. This wasn't the usual Alexa and it was quite alarming to him. It looked like she had a difficult time answering this question and she finally threw her hands up in the air.

"Everything!" she cried. Within the blink of an eye, she was up and moving with such vigor that was honestly quite startling. Alexa discarded her blanket and proceeded to pace around her living room.

"That's not specific. What exactly is bothering you?" he said as he stood up to follow her.

"I don't know what to tell you, and that's the issue here!" Alexa said, looking completely frustrated.

"Is it really that serious?" Q asked.

"Yes, it is!" she said as she moved into the kitchen. Alexa rushed about, fiddling with various things before finally picking up a pen.

"What am I even doing with this?" she said, sounding bewildered as she prepared to throw the object behind her.

"Was it my fault?" Q blurted out. This caused her to stop and she gripped the pen in her hand tightly. Alexa felt him place his hand against hers and he pushed down lightly to set the pen back on the table.

"I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this was my fault, after what I said to you that night," he said, his tone softer than before. Her heart soon began to calm down and she shook her head.

"It's not your fault, Q. Please don't think of it like that," she said. Alexa ran a hand through her hair and turned around to look at him.

"Look, why are you here?" Alexa asked.

"I came to see you," he said. "You didn't come to work today and I wanted to talk to you."

"Go ahead. I'm listening," she replied as she took a seat at the table.

"You seemed really out of it yesterday. What happened exactly?" Q asked as he sat with her, taking his coat off. It took her a few moments to answer but she finally found something to say.

"Well, I was tired and stressed so I kind of just...lost it, in a sense," Alexa admitted.

"Are you sure it wasn't my fault?" he asked.

"Of course not. It was just...something else," she replied with a casual shrug of her shoulders.

"Don't be vague. I want to know what happened," he said, folding his arms across his chest. "Who was that man on the phone?"

"I...no. I can't tell you," she said softly.

"Alexa, come on. If it's bothering you this much, then I'm sure it's important," Q said.

"It's fine. Q, you don't have to worry about it," Alexa said softly. They looked at each other for a few moments before Q conceded defeat.

"Alright. I suppose I can trust you on that," he said. However, he found that he could not exactly believe his own words but disregarded his disagreements momentarily for another issue.

"Also, I wanted to talk about what I said to you at the party," he said.

"What's there to talk about?" Alexa said. She appeared cool and collected on the outside but on the inside, her heart began to pound wildly, fueled by her fear of rejection and that small spark of remaining hope, which coursed through her veins. Alexa then tried to crush those hopes upon remembering what she would most likely be forced to do. She honestly did love him, but she knew she would have to go away soon. Alexa didn't want him to hurt over her when she left.

And she didn't want to hurt over him.

"I'm sorry for what I said. It wasn't fair for me to hurt you like that, especially there," Q said.

"Q, it's okay. I really shouldn't have done that anyway," Alexa said half-heartedly.

"So you...regret doing it then?" he asked. She went silent for a while before finally nodding.

"I probably shouldn't have done it because it would just...make things strange between us. However, I did it anyway so therefore, I am at fault," she said softly.

"Alexa, it's okay," Q said carefully, his expression carefully calculated so as not to give too much away. He had been considering everything from their kiss to their daily interactions for the past few days and he had decided that it wasn't bad at all.

Maybe it wouldn't hurt to try again.

There was something about her that made her different from anyone else he had met and she was truly one of the loveliest women he had known. To add to that, Alexa unleashed a feeling in him that he had felt only once and by the way he looked at her, he knew that he felt something more for this woman. It was the same sensation he had felt with his first girlfriend, but to a higher degree. This emotion could not exactly be classified as love yet, but it could not be left as being good friends either.

Life truly worked in strange ways, given that he had known her for a mere three months but he knew that his emotions were not merely figments of his imagination. They were, in fact, real. Q also knew that if he were to try and start a relationship with her then with time, he might truly fall in love with her.

"Really?" she said, looking somewhat stunned. Alexa didn't know how to respond and she was more or less treading in unknown waters, which terrified her. Q could feel his pulse quickening as he tried to convey his emotions like a proper human being.

"It wasn't a bad thing, per se," Q replied.

"No, it was!" Alexa said quickly. She struggled to speak and stared down nervously at her fingers.

"I apologize for even doing such a thing and I think..." she said, her voice trailing off.

"What?" Q asked. It took a while for her to find the right words to say. She honestly didn't know what she wanted to say or do. Life had presented two paths before her now and that truly scared her.

From the beginning, Alexa had always been told to follow one path and one path alone. She rarely strayed from it and she had always known exactly what she wanted, which led to her resistance to Operation Chetiri. Nonetheless, Alexa would have to choose one path and it was to her dismay and heartbreak that neither of these paths would be easy for her or anyone else she cared about.

On one path, her mind was telling her to forget all about her dalliances with Q, which would result in being alone again. However, her heart was saying otherwise. It preyed on that innate desire for companionship that was unbeknownst to her. If she were to proceed down that path, it would put an end to those lonely nights and for once, she would truly be happy. Alexa knew she loved him and that there would be nothing that could keep her from doing so. However, she had to keep him safe from all of her sins and all of the evils she had encountered in her life.

Would she choose between her duty or her desire?

Her heart raged in an all out war between her what she wanted and what was best for both parties. After several moments, her mind triumphed and she decided that if she did follow Mycroft's plan, then there was a higher chance that the Division would leave him alone. She opened her mouth to speak, with a weight of lead on her heart.

"I'm sorry. It was a ridiculous mistake on my part and I think we should just forget it happened, before we dwell on it any longer," she said, the words feeling heavy in her mouth. Alexa knew it was the best choice, given that it was to ensure his safety from the Division, but somehow, it didn't seem like it was. It didn't satisfy that longing in her heart and she was sure that it wouldn't make her any happier.

The look on Q's face was enough to make her hesitate and mentally reconsider her decision. Alexa suddenly remembered that this was a choice made for his protection and that she had to stand by it, no matter what. She couldn't fall in love with him, knowing that if they did start a relationship now, at such an inopportune moment, the Division would go after him too.

Q's expression soon went from looking hurt and heartbroken to something entirely new and unexpected. There was a look of anger in his eyes and a slight frown on his face. "I thought you felt differently what, four days ago?" he snapped.

"I made a mistake. I didn't mean to..." Alexa said, her voice trailing off rather pathetically.

"You didn't make a mistake. I did. I shouldn't have come here in the first place," he muttered as he stood up. Q turned his back to her and slipped his coat on.

"Q, pleas-" Alexa began, feeling panic rise up in her chest. She impulsively tried to stop him by putting her hand on his arm, but he brushed it off rather roughly.

"I'll be going now. I expect to see you at work tomorrow," he said as he went towards the door, his tone as cold as ice. She found that no words could escape her mouth and she watched him go, hearing the door slam shut behind him. Alexa felt her legs buckle from underneath her and she fell to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks. She had believed that the decision was made out of necessity, but it did not ease that unbearable ache in her chest. This was the price she had paid for love, and the only thing it left her was a sense of grief and a doubt-filled heart.

Had she really done the right thing?

* * *

Oh no! Could things possibly get any worse? What are your thoughts? Leave me some reviews and let me know what you think!


	13. Chapter 12

Hi everyone! Here's the newest installment for this story. Thanks to Fingirl and TimeLady945 for the reviews and I hope you like this one! But be warned...things get pretty intense in this chapter.

Have fun :)

* * *

_Mourning is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do._

**_-C.S. Lewis_**

* * *

**_(The next day...)_**

Alexa trudged down the steps of the MI6 headquarters and scanned her pass without so much as a passing glance at the security guards. She was incredibly weary and the last night had been spent in tears, mixed with two glasses of wine that probably weren't a good idea. All of this had occurred and she still had not come to a decision. Alexa failed to say hello to anyone and she walked down to the elevators. As she stood alone in the small metal car, she caught a sight of her appearance in the metal's mirror-like sheen.

Her skin was pale and sallow and her eyes were weary. She had put on some minimal makeup to hide the little amount of sleep she had gotten and her clothes consisted of her white button up shirt and a pair of slacks. Her hair was neatly combed, but it was only fair to say that she looked miserable.

She walked quietly into the Q-Branch and sat down, without a word. The room was abuzz with activity and she gladly sat silently at her desk, working on her paperwork. No one had said anything about her arrival until about an hour later, when Joy finally turned around.

"Alexa! When did you get here?" she said, looking surprised.

"An hour ago," Alexa mumbled as her fingers moved swiftly across the keyboard. She jotted down something quickly and attempted to keep busy, in order to avoid any awkward conversation. Alexa could almost feel the eyes of her friends on her, except for one. Q was decidedly ignoring her and the fact that he was angry with her made her greatly uncomfortable. All was relatively normal in the room, but they were all blissfully unaware of the hell that would soon occur.

* * *

A certain blonde haired man sat in his holding cell, his hands handcuffed to the front. He had been sitting here for a few hours now and they had not heard a word from him ever since. He had attacked a guard on his way in, for seemingly no reason, which was essentially his ticket into the building. Afterwards, he would execute his plan and capture his ever so elusive prey. The man could tell that he was being carefully scrutinized, in order for them to figure out his identity. No matter. It wasn't like they would find one. He glanced around and smirked, before staring directly at the door.

"I have a message," he said loudly. The guards standing in front of his glass tube turned around and attempted to appear confused, to conceal the fact that these were actually his men that had infiltrated the base an hour ago. He heard the door beeping before a gray haired gentleman walked in, his eyes staring sternly into his.

"And to whom is it addressed?" he said.

"I believe she goes by Alexandra Abbott now," he said, sounding almost gleeful. M's brow furrowed before his face morphed back into its usual coldness. What could this man want with Alexa? He stepped away from the man and headed briskly to the Q-Branch. When he entered, the entire room fell dead silent. The simple, unspoken truth of the MI6 was that it was never good when M walked into a room.

Q turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow. "Did you need something, M? Trouble with a piece of equipment or something?" he said.

"Well, it isn't actually technology related," M said carefully.

"What is it, then?" Q said, looking confused.

"I need Miss Abbott," he said. Alexa, who had been working on her paperwork, looked up in surprise.

"Huh? Did I do something wrong?" she said, looking confused.

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure," he said. "Q, you should come as well."

There was a mutual look of confusion on both of their faces but they silently followed M out the door. "Sorry, sir, but what is this all about?" Alexa said as she fell in time with his quick footsteps.

"We captured a man this morning for attacking one of our guards at the front entrance and he hasn't spoken since. He finally said something a few minutes ago and personally requested to speak to you, Alexandra," M said.

"Who is this man?" Q said as the walked down the winding hallways and into an elevator. That sickening feeling of fear had settled in her stomach and as much as she attempted to calm down, she still feared for the worst.

"We have been unable to identify him. He doesn't appear on any national servers anywhere," M said. They waited several moments before the steel doors opened. They walked out of the elevator and into the room where the man was contained.

They found James, along with several security guards who were monitoring the man in the room on the outside. M approached him and stared at their captive prisoner. "Has he said anything in our absence, Bond?" he said.

"No. He's been absolutely silent. We haven't found any records yet on his identity either," he said, shaking his head.

"Strange," M muttered.

"Why would he ask for you specifically, Alexa?" James said, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. She did not say anything, for her heart was frozen with fear. This was the same man that Mycroft said had been following her. The Division had taken action and this was what she had been afraid of. Naturally, that same fear reflected onto her face and it was startling to see that she recognized a man who was unknown to anyone else in the room.

"Shit," Alexa muttered. Her mind was working a million miles a minute and she did not hear what everyone else had to say. She knew that her world was crumbling to pieces under her feet and there was nothing she could do now to prevent her downfall. Alexa stood there in complete silence, attempting to think of something to do to avoid this situation and she felt her heart sinking in her chest. The time had come to face the music and she was anything but prepared.

She took only a single breath to clear her thoughts before wordlessly heading into the room, where he stood in front of the glass containment tube. She stared at the man and his eyes lit up with amusement when he saw her. Alexa held her breath and for a moment, she was frozen before she was flooded with intense loathing.

She hated every bit of him.

"Ah, there she is, Miss Chetiri in the flesh," he said, his lips upturning in a smirk.

"Sorry, what are you going on about?" she said, attempting to pretend that she had no idea what was happening. The man let out a roar of laughter at such an attempt and he shook his head.

"Don't pretend like you don't know what's happening. You know who I am, Alexie," he said in a sing-song voice.

"Please don't call me that," she said through tight lips.

"Fine, then. But neither of us can deny the fact that you're wondering why I'm here," he said. Her eyes narrowed and she folded her arms across her shoulders. A different side of her was unfolding and everyone could sense that the hostility in the air increasing rapidly.

"What do you want with me?" Alexa said, attempting to be controlled. This was, of course, the exact opposite and she fought the unbearable urge to crush this man right before their watching eyes.

"Do you remember me now? Or do you not recall me at all? That's terribly rude of you," he said with a mocking sigh.

"Do you honestly expect me to forget you, after what you did to me? You're none other than Sergei Volkov, the right hand man of the Division," she said coldly.

"There's my girl. Welcome back," he said with a disconcerting laugh.

"Don't call me that," she said sharply.

"Fine, love. No need to get so angry about it," he said mockingly, shooting her a lazy grin. Alexa merely rolled her eyes and approached him.

"It's curious that they would send you all the way down here to fetch me," she said.

"We've been hunting for you for the part nine years. Of course they would send their best. I'm surprised that you even remember me by name, by the way. It's sweet, really," he said with a smirk.

"Oh, don't flatter yourself. It's not like I want to remember you," she said, with a roll of her eyes. "To be honest, I don't want to remember that part of my life at all."

At these words, Sergei merely let out a sigh and shook his head. "That's the trouble with you. You were always resisting us in that quiet little way of yours, clinging onto the ridiculous notion that you were not what you were raised to be," he said. "You can never change what you are."

"I was never one of you!" Alexa shouted. She suddenly remembered that she was being watched so she merely glared at the man and set her hands in front of her, attempting to hide that they were shaking with a mixture of fury and fear.

"What did the Division send you here to do?" she said, her voice sounding controlled and devoid of all emotion.

"Look at that. You're quickly reverting to your old self again, Miss Chetiri," he said with a short laugh.

"I would like you to refrain from addressing me as such," she said through gritted teeth. "I never earned that title, and I'm glad I never did."

"Ah, that's where you're wrong. You ended up being our best, Alexa. We saw Peter die in Kiev nine years ago and what do you know? You're still here, alive and well. You won, so you should come back," he said.

"I don't care. I won't go with you," she said defiantly. "I have a life here now and you cannot take that from me."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Sergei chuckled. The hostility seemed to increase tenfold and she looked intently at him.

"What are you planning?" Alexa said, her voice dangerously soft.

"Hmm? Now, why on earth would I tell you?" he said tauntingly.

"I am not a patient woman, Sergei. Tell me what the Division wants with me and how the hell they figured out that I survived, right now," she snapped as she marched up to him.

"We tested the DNA of your supposed corpse and found no matches to you," he said. "We tried to look for you, but everything led to a dead end. You're not too bad at hide and seek, Alexandra."

"How did you find me here in London?" Alexa demanded.

"You could say that it was merely chance that brought me here. I was originally after James Bond," Sergei replied.

"Why?"

"Bond was sent on a mission in Germany about a month ago to break up a crime syndicate that specialized particularly in arms dealing and extortion. While he was there, he killed its leader. His name was Grigori Vasiliev and was one of our most important liaisons," he said.

"I was going to kill Bond that night, but I ran into you instead. I've been keeping an eye on you for the past few days now and I found you here at the MI6 building. Remind me again why you decided to betray your own country," Sergei said coolly.

"I accepted this job because it would help keep me away from the likes of you," Alexa said simply. Sergei studied her carefully and shook his head, chuckling lightly.

"How quaint. You accepted this because you thought it could blot out all the evils you had caused before," he chuckled. "How has that worked out for you?"

"It was great, until you came along," she grumbled.

"Poor little Alexandra, living in perpetual denial," he said with a shake of his head.

"The Division," she repeated, ignoring his quip. "What exactly do they want?"

"We want you," he replied.

"What purpose would I serve you?" she said. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm no longer of any use to you."

"You were our best, with small flaws, like that annoyingly stubborn nature of yours. However, you were our most successful subject since you survived. We want to know what secrets lie in that pretty little head of yours," he said as he tapped the glass twice. "We want to see what makes you tick and how we can make more like you."

"I would never let you get in my head," she said, looking horrified.

"You won't have to. We'll get it out of you one way or another," he smirked.

"You are a monster. This needs to stop," Alexa said firmly.

"Why would we stop? The success you brought us only fuels us to proceed with Operation Chetiri. One could say that this is all your fault," he said, giving her a grin.

"No!" she snapped, looking horrified. She was shaking now and Sergei knew that he had scared her badly by his accusation.

"You can't keep doing this to other children. It...it's just wrong," she continued, with a shake of her head.

"What's so wrong about it?" Sergei said, giving her an unsettling grin.

"Look, I don't want any part of this so for the love of god, leave me alone!" Alexa exclaimed.

Sergei now stood closer to the glass wall, meeting Alexa's eyes. She watched him cautiously, mainly because of the sly smirk on his face. "We will get you to come back somehow, Alexandra," he said. Sergei stopped momentarily to glance at the front wall. "We might even add a special little...incentive for you, to make you come back."

The aura changed entirely from hostility to fear. It was evident that her mood had changed and she stared at Sergei. "What would that be?" she said, feeling her stomach twisting into knots.

"Oh, nothing. We could kill all of your friends. Maybe we can take that man you seem to be so fond of. You know who I'm talking about, of course," he said casually. A look of raw, genuine fear came across Alexa's face and she stared at him incredulously, her expression morphing into one of utter fury.

"You wouldn't dare," she hissed.

"Oh, I would. Besides, you couldn't protect your own parents. What makes you think you have the strength to protect him?" he said mockingly.

"I was only four years old, you bastard! Give me a break!" Alexa exclaimed furiously.

"No matter," Sergei said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I've said everything you need to know and you should be fully aware of what I'm capable of." Her temper flared high but she could do nothing to harm him. Alexa glared daggers at him and felt pure anger in her heart.

"If you so much as lay a finger on him, I will not hesitate to kill you," she said.

"Make me," he said tauntingly. Alexa found that she could not say anything more without causing more damage and turned to begin walking towards the door.

"Oh, Alexa?" he called as he watched her leave. Alexa did not know why but she stopped and turned around.

"What?" she snapped.

"Let's see if you're still as good as you were before," he said as he motioned to the guards. One of the two men pulled out his gun and fired at the door lock, causing it to malfunction and lock. They were now cut off from the rest of the MI6 base, leaving an unarmed Alexa with Sergei and the two guards. Alexa jumped back to dodge a shot and she immediately knew that she would have to fight back. In thinking that, she knew that someone would have to be injured in this situation. It was unavoidable at this point and she had to do it in order to protect both her and everyone else.

Both men fired shots at her and she ducked her head low and dashed around the room in a zigzag pattern. She avoided the bullets with a certain degree of ease. Her tactic of dashing sporadically around the room was effective, until she felt a bullet graze the side of her arm. She swore but ran forward, knocking the taller man onto his feet. Alexa grabbed his gun and used it to hit the other man roughly in the head.

She attempted to be aware of her surroundings but the man she had hit in the head had not taken the hit as hard as she had anticipated. He knocked the gun out of her hand, the black pistol skidding across the floor. This did not dismay Alexa and she used the two guards' attacks against them. She would lean back and duck to make them attack each other and after using a combination of kicks, punches, and a style of fighting she had learned in Russia, one man was out. Alexa used this momentary gap in the fight to grab the gun and point it at Sergei, circling around the back of the room.

"Well done. You've still got it," he sneered.

"You won't make it back to Russia alive to tell them that," Alexa said coldly. She mercilessly fired her final gunshot and it hit him in the center of the forehead, knocking him (bloodied brain and all) against the side of the glass container. Alexa fired two more to ensure that he was dead before she heard the footsteps of the other man behind her. It was too late to do anything; he had already knocked the pistol out of her hand. She recollected her thoughts and in retaliation, she stuck out her elbow quickly to hit him in the abdomen.

He grunted in pain and she kicked high to hit him in the face with the heel of her shoes. The guard grabbed her ankle but she did not panic like he had expected her to. Alexa wrapped her other leg around his neck and did a quick but forceful backflip to knock him down. He had gotten back up, despite his head injury from hitting the floor and grabbed her by the neck. He was stronger than her and held her tightly, not letting her escape from his grasp. For a moment, her vision was filled with nothing but red and she struggled against him. In the din of the fray, she heard the loud shattering of glass and footsteps.

"Alexa!" a voice shouted. She could not see who it was at the moment but instead, she heard the sound of a gunshot (which had never been so relieving until that moment). The voice belonged to Q, who had shot at the door with a pistol, after realizing that he wouldn't be able to unlock it in time to save her. The man's grip immediately loosened and he felt to the ground, letting her go. She heard the sound of his head hitting the concrete floor and she knew that Sergei had failed.

Alexa fell roughly on the ground, coughing wildly while attempting to catch her breath. She shut her eyes and breathed heavily, feeling panic rising and falling in time with her breathing. Alexa felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up to see who it was.

"Alexa, are you alright?" Q said as he crouched down next to her, with a look of pure, unadulterated concern written all over his face. She could see that his expression was a mix of doubt, horror, and a twinge of...disgust, possibly? Alexa could not respond and internally, she felt numb.

The next few events seemed like a blur to Alexa. Various paramedics attended to her wounds and they bandaged her up, cleaning the caked bloodstains off her hands. She recalled that a furious M fired questions at her, ones that she could not answer. She would merely shake her head in response, her voice seemingly lost in the din. Men rushed in and out of the room to clear Sergei's body, along with the two guards that Bond had later killed. They wrapped a blanket around Alexa's shoulders and told Q to sit with her for a while, to see if she would talk. Within minutes, the two were alone in the room.

"Hey, are you okay?" he repeated. She could not bring herself to look at him and stared at the ground, pulling her knees to her chest.

"You saved my life back there. Thank you," she mumbled as she avoided his gaze.

"Alexa, look at me," he said softly as he tilted her chin up to meet his. Q found that he was not that angry at her anymore; rather, he was worried for her safety. When she met his eyes, he could see that same, sickening look of fear alight in her gaze that he hated more than anything. Q was not used to seeing her so unsure of herself and it worried him. He could see her trembling as she sat next to him and he knew that she was truly scared about something. That worried him most of all because he knew that nothing ever seemed to faze her.

So what made this different?

Alexa closed her eyes again and she felt a tear stream down her cheek. Several more followed and she pulled away from him, putting her head in her hands. Alexa was in tears and he hated seeing such a woman like her break down in such a manner.

"I didn't think any of this could happen. This is all so wrong," she whispered. Q was unsure of what to do, given that he was terrible with handling emotional situations but he put a hand on her shoulder in an effort to comfort her. He hesitated slightly and in a moment of impulse, put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. Q knew she needed this, given by the fact that she was quite close to a mental breakdown.

She sank gratefully into his embrace and for their sake, tried to stop crying. After several minutes, her tears had been reduced to a mere sniffle. Under normal circumstances, she would have been terrified with such contact but now, she was glad that he provided comfort in his own way.

Although she felt somewhat safe in his arms, it still did not stave off her growing fear. All thoughts of her stresses filled her mind and at this point, she was on the verge of having an emotional breakdown. It annoyed her greatly because this had been the second time this week that she had neared her emotional threshold.

"Who was that man and what did he want with you? What is the Division?" he said. She shook her head wordlessly, feeling her spirits sink in her chest. Several moments passed and Q let out a sigh.

"I can't hold you like this and tell you that it will be alright if I don't know why exactly he attacked you," Q murmured.

"I..." she began, letting out a cough. "I'm sorry. I can't..."

There was a pleading look on his face and he shook his head. "Alexa, please. I need to know," he said. The look was enough to make her hesitate, even just for a second, and she knew that she couldn't avoid the truth any longer. He had to know something, anything to satiate his need for the truth. She decided that an abridged version of her past would have to do and she glanced back at him.

"Sergei Volkov...I knew him when I was younger. He is connected with people who could and would easily hurt you and everyone else I care about," she said guiltily. Q was silent and did not respond like she had feared and Alexa stood up without warning and the blanket fell soundlessly to the floor as she pulled away from him.

"I never should have taken the job at the Q-Branch and I don't want to see you or anyone else getting hurt because of my mistake," she whispered.

"Alexa, I wouldn't let that happen. We would protect you to the best of our ability," Q said. It made him uneasy to know that she had lied to him about her past but he was willing to try to protect her from whatever issues she would face. However, he could sense that she was on the verge of leaving the MI6 and in that sense, she was leaving him as well. She did not respond for a long time and stared at her shoes.

"I'm so sorry. I'm probably going to just end up hurting you with all of this and that's honestly the last thing I want," she said softly.

"I know I can't promise much, but I can promise that it'll be ok. I'll keep them away from you to the best of my ability," Alexa continued.

"Alexa..." he began, his heart twisting painfully in his chest as she turned away from him. It was in that instant that Q realized the gravity this situation and how this would affect both of them. She was going to say goodbye, as if she had finally conceded defeat. The bright, hopeful light in her eyes had been extinguished the moment she had said it and most likely would never return.

She did not meet his gaze and went back to the Q-Branch without another word. Alexa wordlessly gathered all of her things, ignoring whatever protestations and questions her friends were firing at her. Alexa made a quick note for Q, stating her resignation and she left the headquarters as quickly as she could. She went on the train to her home and upon reaching her foyer, pulled out her phone.

Her hands shook as she dialed the number she had seen on top of the envelope that she had been given. Alexa swallowed back her fear and held the phone to her ear, listening to the dial gone ring continuously. Finally, she heard it stop and assumed that he had picked up.

"**_Mycroft? I think I've made my decision_.**"

* * *

Well, this just exacerbates the situation, doesn't it?

Anyway, how do you think this will turn out? What do you think will happen? Leave me some reviews if you can and come back next week for the next chapter of Agent Chetiri!


	14. Chapter 13

Here we are, it's Saturday again! Thank you again for the review and to everyone for reading. By the way, did I happen to break you, TimeLady945? Sorry about that! You'll probably realize that it only gets worse from here on out :)

Anyway, I hope everyone likes this chapter too!

* * *

_A wise person decides slowly but abides by their decisions._

_-**Arthur Ashe**_

* * *

**_"Mycroft? I think I've made my decision."_**

A sharply dressed Mycroft Holmes sat at his desk in his office on Downing Street, nodding slowly as he heard Alexa speak. He honestly wasn't surprised that she had called him, given what he had heard about today's fiasco at the MI6 base.

"I'm glad to see that you've decided. What have you done so far?" he asked.

"I told Q a little bit about my past. I also said goodbye to him and resigned from my position in the Q-Branch," she said.

"Good. That's exactly what I needed you to do. I will take care of the rest," Mycroft said.

"Well, what do I do now?" Alexa replied, sounding bewildered.

"Listen carefully, Alexa. You may need to write this information down. I need you to do several other things to attend to in order to make this work. Tomorrow, get whatever else you need to make yourself look differently. After that, buy a suitcase of some sort in a consignment shop and pay with cash. If you take a suitcase from your house, they might suspect that you've run away," he said.

"That makes sense. What else?"

"Gather the most important items in your house and pack them with you. Take the envelope as well. We will be extracting money from your bank account in the guise of paying your bills. I'm sure that you have some new clothes somewhere, so take those as well. Don't take clothes that you've previously worn, alright?" Mycroft said.

"Right. How will I get out of London?" Alexa asked.

"I will send my assistant by at five o'clock tomorrow to come for you and you will leave your belongings with her. After that, she'll take you back home. I will need you to stay at home for a day while I make some final preparations. Don't let anyone in or talk to anyone," he warned. She was quite surprised to hear such a detailed plan from him but she was grateful for it anyway.

"Alright," Alexa said.

"Would you like to hear the tricky part now?"

"What exactly does that entail?" she said softly.

"I went to Belarus," he said simply.

"Why?"

"As you know, they are one of the few countries that still enforce capital punishment and they owed me a favour. Ergo, I asked and I received an incarcerated war criminal on death row. Although she had blonde hair, she did have pale skin and the same general features, since she was Belarusian. There were others, but she resembled you the most," he said.

"Go on," she said.

"They performed a laryngectomy on her so she is unable to speak. She has undergone facial alteration surgery as well, so she looks a lot more like you do. Therefore, she will take your place," he said.

"What exactly will happen on that day?" she said.

"On the morning of the second day, I want you to wake up and go about your usual business. At six fifty that evening, you will go out of your home and off to the MI6 headquarters," he said.

"What? Why do I have to?" Alexa exclaimed.

"Listen to me. You have to pretend you forgot something and you have to face Q," he said.

"Mycroft, I have no idea if I can do that. What will I say to him?" she said, sounding panicked. "Besides, I doubt he'd be there. It is New Year's Eve, after all."

"If there's one thing I know about my little brother, it's that he is always working, even on a holiday," Mycroft said matter-of-factly.

"You're kidding. Does M even allow that?" she said incredulously. It certainly sounded like something Q would do, since he seemed to enjoy his work just that much.

"He doesn't pay him for working on holidays. M always just leaves him in there to his own devices," he replied offhandedly.

"That's not surprising in the least," she muttered. "So, what do I tell him?"

"While you're in there, I don't care what you say. You can tell him whatever you deem necessary. However, you have to run out. Naturally, he'll follow you and he's probably not as quick as you, but he still is fairly nimble. You'll head towards the Barbican Tube Station. Once you round the corner, there will be a black car waiting for you. Hop into the car and we'll send out the other woman. He'll follow her and she will jump in front of the train," he said.

"Will she do that?" she said incredulously.

"She'll willingly do it because if she doesn't, she'll die. She's a war criminal under capital punishment anyway so she has to die somehow," Mycroft said.

"What if she doesn't obey your orders?" she said.

"I have several armed men in the station to ensure that everything goes smoothly. You know what I mean," he said.

"Well, why does he have to see me die?" Alexa said, sounding terrified.

"He has to see you die in order to make it completely convincing. If he witnesses your death, then he'll undoubtedly be believed by everyone around him. This will instigate the desired effect, that you're dead," Mycroft said.

"But I don't want to hurt him like that!" Alexa cried.

"I understand that this is a tough situation but we have to do what is necessary, Alexa," he replied calmly.

"But-" she protested.

"You do want to ensure his safety, correct?" Mycroft said. There was a brief silence and his words slowly sank into her mind, to the point where she was able to think and decide clearly.

"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "What next?"

"Your corpse will be brought to St. Bartholomew's Hospital nearby, where they will state that Alexandra Abbott is indeed dead. You will be brought to the safe house we've established for you here after the suicide. While they're planning your funeral, you will get a haircut and your hair dyed a different colour for your passport photographs and licenses. After that, you'll be out of London and on your way," he said.

"And from there, you won't contact me anymore, correct?" she asked.

"No, we won't. The last thing we will do is leave you with a car and several different license plates. From there, you are free to roam wherever you choose so as long as you do not reveal that you are alive," Mycroft said.

"That sounds perfect. And as for tomorrow, can I...at least try to tell him I'm okay somehow?" Alexa said hesitantly.

"Well, you must to stay away from him after you're dead, Alexa. I apologize," Mycroft said.

"Please, Mycroft. I don't want to just leave him in that sort of state, alone and possibly depressed. I can go through with almost all of this plan but I can't do that. I have to at least do something," she said. There was a brief silence and she heard a sigh on the other line.

"I'll put heightened security measures around the cemetery. Make it quick and make it discreet and refrain from saying anything that could give all of this away," he said.

Alexa let out a sigh of relief and felt a little bit of the weight in her chest release. "Alright. Thank you for this. Really. I didn't expect you to be so well-prepared, and I honestly don't think I would have done all of this as well, had I done it myself," Alexa said, running her hand through her hair.

"You can thank me until it's over. This is for the greater good and benefit of us all," he said.

"I suppose so. I'll be there tomorrow then," she said. Alexa said goodbye and hung up, proceeding to rush around her house. She set her box from work next to the stair steps and went up to her bedroom to gather her important belongings.

Alexa put the envelope on her bed, along with several of the inventions she had constructed in the Q-Branch and the key to her home in Kodino. She had looked at it earlier from a secure satellite connection and knew that it was still intact and inhabitable. Alexa planned to reside at her childhood home, figuring that the Division would not expect her to be there. People rarely returned to the death scene of parent, given that there would be tremendous traumatic repercussions that would come with it. It was the safest place for her to stay and she would reside there while formulating a plan to bring down the Division.

She also took the small photograph of her family out of the bottom of her jewelry box and set it on the bed. Alexa then set up a secure network connection and plugged her phone into her computer, transferring the data into a microSD card. She left the phone in her purse and pulled out of her new clothes from her closet, leaving only a few inside.

She lay down that night, feeling a weight in the bottom of her heart. Alexa tossed and turned, thinking it would eventually dissipate but it did not. It lasted through the night and allowed her to get only a few hours of rest. When she got out of bed and took a seat at her kitchen table, it was then that she realized what exactly was going through her veins. Her peaceful life here in London was now coming to a close and that in itself made her very uncomfortable. What made her even more uneasy was the fact that she would have to sever all ties with the ones she loved in the process. The life of Alexandra Abbott would have to meet its end and for once, she found that she hated it.

Ending one of her lives had never been this difficult. No, this one was different because she actually had something to lose, bridges to burn and ties to sever. She had already lost everything with Q and her work and that saddened her greatly. Alexa had loved it so much, had loved him so much, and she hated to lose it all like this.

She had never once realized how much this identity had meant to her and she was afraid to lose it, because it defined her. For the longest time, she had believed that this was who she really was and it was a terrifying thing, to lose herself. Alexa really wasn't sure of anything at this point, and she could not determine who she was.

Alexa shook off her negative thoughts and tried to brighten her mood, by brewing a cup of coffee. She sat quietly at her table, staring rather pensively out the window. At a quarter past nine, she got dressed and headed down to a drugstore. She figured that it would be quite busy there, since it was the twenty-ninth of December. New Year's was coming up and that meant that everyone would be stocking up on hangover pills and possibly even birth control.

Anything could happen on New Year's, after all.

She made her way past several other shoppers (who were, as she had anticipated, buying contraception pills at the counter) and browsed carefully through the shelves. Alexa picked up a a variety of coloured contacts, a pair of cheap, black glasses without a prescription, and other toiletries she might need along the way. She bought some medication such as painkillers and Tylenol, for if she were to fall ill. Alexa paid at the counter and tapped her fingers against the table, with the cashier lackadaisically scanning her items. The woman did not question on her item selections and merely kept chewing on her bubble gum, without giving Alexa so much as a passing glance.

After buying her things, she went to a phone book and searched for consignment stores in London. Alexa found one a few blocks away and she walked towards it, later going in to buy her suitcase. She soon found an inexpensive black case and paid for it, before heading home to pack. Alexa entered her home and carefully packed her clothes, toiletries, and important items. For the first time since it had been given to her, she opened the envelope and inspected the files.

There were three different folders inside, each containing different identities with varied nationalities. One folder held papers under the name of Alyssa Cartieré. She was put as a French citizen who held a job as a freelance photographer. The next batch of papers was under the alias of Natasha Semyonova, a Ukrainian native with a job as an aspiring author. The last folder held the identity of Veronica Ryder, a British artist.

At first, it seemed rather strange for Mycroft to pick such occupations for her but it soon became evident that they had chosen out of safety. Such jobs were based on independent work and had little external communication with others. Therefore, no one would need to validate that she worked in such a position. If they had chosen a job like an office assistant or even a barista, they would have to deal with loose ends to tie up.

She set the files in the folder once more and was careful not to leave marks on the hardwood floors from the wheels on the suitcase. Alexa made sure to get what she needed and soon heard a car pull up outside of her home. She exited the house and placed her case in the trunk before taking a seat with Mycroft's assistant, Anthea.

"Hello again," Alexa said. The young woman merely nodded and as always, was typing on her cellphone. They had a quiet ride through the streets of London before arriving at a neat little office, with a gilded black door. She went in, carrying her suitcase in one hand, and looked around at the empty, but tastefully decorated foyer.

"Where's Mycroft?" Alexa asked.

"He's out to dinner with his friend," she replied shortly.

"Friend? Like who? He doesn't seem like the sort to befriend anyone," Alexa said, thinking aloud.

"Oh, he has one, Greg Lestrade," Anthea said as she led her towards her desk. "I'll take your things. Follow me, please."

"Okay," Alexa said. She left her bag there, as told, and was given a small bag.

"This is what you'll be wearing when you head off to the MI6 headquarters. You have precisely four minutes to talk to him and you need to leave the building at precisely 6:54. The train should arrive at 6:58 and we'll watch and make sure it does. Follow the plan and everything should go smoothly," she said simply.

"Alright. Thank you," Alexa replied.

"Not a problem. Head outside and they'll drive you home," she said as she showed her to the door again. Alexa nodded and went out with her newly acquired items, climbing into the car once more.

She headed home and pulled her new clothes out of her bag, which consisted of a plain red dress, a pair of black tights, a beige coloured coat, black ballet flats, and a black scarf. Alexa put the clothes in her closet and took a seat on the bed momentarily, to think about what else she needed to do. Night was falling quickly so she made herself a dinner of chicken soup and lay down in her bed to sleep. All she could do now was wait for her time to end.

* * *

I told you it would get worse! Will you be ready for her demise? How will Q react? Leave me a comment and let me know how you felt about this chapter!


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